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This paper examines the ways in which a policy aiming to improve both use of an extensive dryland natural resource, and the well-being of rural peoples in Botswana, has impacted on the environment and upon indigenous land-use activities. The impacts of the Tribal Grazing Land Policy (TGLP) have been spatially and temporally variable. Previous assertions about its contribution to desertification may have been overstated, although environmental changes have certainly resulted from policy impacts. Effects upon traditional indigenous population coping strategies for environmental variability are considered both in terms of subsistence activities and the ability to respond to drought events. It is concluded that the policy has not met its environmental, pastoral production or societal objectives, largely because it was founded on unestablished assumptions. Large-scale environmental degradation and desertification, however, cannot yet be attributed to the TGLP, but it can be contended that the policy has reduced both environmental and societal resilience to natural environmental variability. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.