Questions regarding the governance of natural resources will become more politicised in the face of growing international and domestic pressure for access to these increasingly scarce resources. Southern Africa has a rich diversity of natural resources and yet many of the regionis countries remain trapped in poverty and are overly dependent on the export of primary commodities. As part of the Institute for Global Dialogueis (IGD) focus on governance, this second contribution to the series on natural resources has set out to capture the nature of the problem in relation to four sector-specific areas: mining, fisheries, forestry and transboundary natural resource management. Through these detailed sector analyses, the external and domestic demand for resources and the socio-economic challenges facing the governance of these resources are interrogated. Through a number of policy recommendations, the book raises some strategic considerations that may prove essential ingredients in the development of a common position on natural resource governance within southern Africa.