The livelihoods of rural populations in Zimbabwe are heavily dependent on the local natural resource base. Thus natural resource management programmes directly affect the livelihood strategies and food security of local households. The conflict between Zimbabwe's rural populations and wildlife mega fauna motivated the creation of the Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources Use (CAMPFIRE). CAMPFIRE created what was seen as a novel approach to communitybased natural resource management (CBNRM), aiming to create an economic value for wildlife conservation for the enhancement of rural livelihoods, rural development, and biodiversity conservation. While numerous studies have considered a plethora of different elements of CAMPFIRE there has been little analysis of the influence the wider project processes have had on the local households involved and whether the project has achieved its aim of enhancing rural livelihoods. To do this it is imperative to not just understand the livelihood strategies undertaken given the capital assets available, but to also determine household access, rights, and ability to use these capitals to give a more holistic perspective on the factors playing a role in rural livelihoods. This paper will assess the different factors affecting rural household access to natural resources and the context of the institutional landscape using data collected from four rural villages in Zimbabwe. It highlights the detrimental impacts the CAMPFIRE process has had on rural livelihoods ultimately showing that the CBNRM discourse in Zimbabwe has reinforced the protectionist conservation regime it was trying to counter.