This paper explores the role of state law and legal institutions in creating an enabling environment for community-based natural resource management. As with any area of human endeavor, community-based management has sometimes succeeded in ignorance of its legal environment. Some community-based management systems have operated for many years with no formal legal underpinning, and perhaps even in direct contradiction to what is written on the law books or administered in the courts. These are, however, increasingly rare exceptions. Natural resources are the focus of increasing conflict around the world. Where community-based management efforts are subject to challenge from outside or within, the formal legal environment, for better or worse, becomes increasingly relevant. Nevertheless, in many national legal systems, the status of much community-based management remains uncertain and insecure, and a threat to its sustainability.