The Caprivi region is little known as it was virtually closed to outsiders until Namibia's independence in 1990, owing to South Africa's military operations in the region. The focus of this article is the region's freshwater fisheries, which are important both in economic and socio-cultural terms, although they are currently under considerable pressure. Conventional management policies have tended either to favour an active role by community-based institutions or external management by government institutions. While the optimal management solution in Caprivi would be integrated co-management, it is argued that a general weakness of analytical approaches to natural resource management is their inadequate attention to the broader political and economic context. In the case of Caprivi, the political importance of traditional authorities, and the concomitant limited legitimacy of central government institutions, represent severe challenges to successful, integrated co-management.