This paper argues that community based wildlife management in the Okavango Delta needs to be analysed and understood within the broader political, ecological and economic trends affecting Botswana as a whole. A range of issues, including global economics, competing land use strategies, tenure regimes, global climate change, village economics and settlement patterns, the role of donor agencies and the economic and political transformation of Botswana society in the last thirty years, all impact on the prospects for Community Based Wildlife Management. Some key assumptions (such as the current geographical basis for defining communities) upon which Community Based Wildlife Management has been based need further discussion and debate. Keywords: Annual flood, Okavango River, Hydrological processes, Seasonal water supply, Semi-aquatic lechwe, Sitatunga, Ecological management, Socio-ecological systems, Global environmental transformation, Botswana economy, Trans Kalahari Highway, Telecommunication system, Community Based Wildlife Management.