The fish resources of the Zambezi and Chobe rivers and associated Caprivi floodplains are both a vital component of the livelihoods of the floodplain inhabitants and a major angling tourist attraction. Fish is thus a major contributor to food security and the local economy. Improved communications in the area and consequent increased commercialisation of the fishery was identified as a major threat to rural livelihoods and to aquatic biodiversity through over-exploitation of the larger fish species that are most valuable for both food and for angling tourism. Concerns were expressed by the local fishing communities and by the tourist organisations that the fishery was in serious decline as a result of widespread use of illegal and destructive fishing methods, and the results of monitoring programmes carried out since 1997 by the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources confirmed over-exploitation of the large tilapiine cichlid species. The Zambezi/Chobe fisheries project was thus conceived as a way of empowering the local communities to manage the resources in a sustainable way through the formation of local management committees and devolution of responsibility for management, as envisaged in the Namibian constitution and the Inland Fisheries White Paper. The project set out to facilitate management of the fisheries by developing a system of integrated co-management and, because the Zambezi fishery is a shared resource with Zambia, harmonisation of activities and cooperation in surveys and monitoring. The project officially started in July 2006. An interim consultant, Dr N. Nyambe, was appointed in September 2006 until the appointed Project Executant, Dr BCW van der Waal was able to take up the post in February 2007. The project was scheduled to end June 2009, but following the Final Evaluation (Tweddle, 2009) was extended until December 2009. Dr C. Hay and Mr D. Tweddle were contracted to complete the project and prepare for a new project phase.