Community-based conservation in Namibia's Kunene Region illuminates a number of key issues relevant to approaches which view wildlife as a sustainable natural resource. This paper examines 5 key issues in detail: the shifting balance between intrinsic and instrumental incentives for conservation; scale as a factor influencing the development of viable common property resource management institutions for wildlife and tourism; the importance of external facilitation based on 'light-touch' adaptive management; modes of relationship between communities and the private sector; and the difficulties of reconciling intra-community differences. The Kunene case demonstrates a number of innovative and positive responses to the challenges posed by community-based wildlife conservation on communal land. Keywords: case studies, common property resources, community involvement, conservation, incentives, private sector, public domain, wildlife, wildlife conservation, wildlife management.