This article explores the ways in which government departments, non-governmental organizations and small-scale fishing communities have responded to increasing competition and conflict over natural resources in Thailand’s coastal areas. In particular, it addresses both the theoretical and practical implications of granting small-scale fishing communities the right to manage coastal resources in Southern Thailand. The primary empirical focus is Phangnga Bay, where case studies in Baan Ao Kung and Bann Para (both on Phuket) are attempting to determine the factors that encourage and prevent local communities from conserving coastal resources. The author concludes that community-based management offers a constructive way in which stakeholders and can address persistent problems within Thailand’s coastal areas. Its main problems, relate to enforcement capability and institutional design. In terms of enforcement, the notion that small-scale fishing communities can or should have the capacity to enforce territorial fishing areas is seen to be unrealistic and potentially dangerous while the notion that local communities monitoring the existing rules and appealing to local authorities when these rules are violated appears more viable.