Human-lion conflict (HLC) is the premier threat to the population viability of the desert-adapted lions in Kunene, northwest Namibia. In Kunene lions primarily inhabit communal conservancy land, where seminomadic pastoralism is the primary source of residents' income. A form of community-based natural resource management (CBNRM), conservancies seek to unify human land uses and wildlife conservation outcomes. Using historical and social survey methods, as well as drawing upon environmental and lionfocused research, we show that pastoralists attribute three distinguishing properties to lions: fearsomeness, destructiveness, and increasing numbers. Pastoralists' perspectives on lions threaten to undermine the pillars of CBNRM and government-imposed limitations on local ownership rights over lions contradict Ostrom's Seven Design Principles for common-pool resources - a framework that was central to the establishment of the conservancy system. By linking the historical and contemporary challenges pastoralists' experience of living with lions we reveal the need for recentering HLC mitigation around human-(livestock-)lion relationships. Centering pastoralists' perspectives is necessary to strengthening the pillars of CBNRM. We introduce the Lion Rangers program, which is placing local people at the center of lion conservation and HLC mitigation, as a means of fulfilling important dimensions of Ostrom's Design Principles. We close by emphasizing the importance of human-centered methods for incorporating local perspectives into wildlife conservation when it takes place on multi-use lands. Keywords: human-lion conflict, community-based natural resource management, distinguishing properties, human-animal studies, Ostrom, human-wildlife conflict. In prep for Bollig, M. and Anderson, D. (eds.) Conservation in Africa. Cambridge University Press (tbc).