This paper reviews the shift in conservation thinking over the past two decades, highlighting how traditional protection‑focused approaches have proven insufficient by overlooking the social and human dimensions of natural resource management. In Namibia, this shift informed the development of a national community‑based natural resource management (CBNRM) programme after Independence in 1990. The paper examines one of the earliest site‑specific CBNRM initiatives, launched in 1991 in the eastern Tsumkwe District, an area of high biodiversity and complex development needs for the Ju/’hoan San community. Developed through collaboration between government authorities, local community organisations, and NGOs, the project aimed to create incentives for sustainable resource use and to ensure that economic and conservation benefits flowed directly back to rural communities.