This paper examines the introduction and effects of the CBNRM model through the case study of the Rural Wood Market project in southern Mali. Introduced and funded by the World Bank and the Dutch government at the turn of the 21st century, the goal of this energy-related project is to restructure access to, control of and management of designated savanna woodlands in order to ensure sustainable wood harvesting. A key contradiction characterized the project's design from the outset: though it intended to create new property rights through the creation of new practices and new authorities, it failed to account for existing practices and the continued importance of customary authorities. Thus there are now competing institutions for access to fuelwood, and reconfigured fuel wood commodity chains, increasing the pressure on the savannah woodlands. Meanwhile, despite the project's intention to have people plant more trees, the new actors are reluctant: both because of perceived abundance as well as an unwillingness to confront customary authorities by claiming new territory through planting more trees. The consequences of the new project are, therefore, highly mixed: on the one hand, some new actors are empowered in positive ways by the project (women, young men) while on the other hand, the new access mechanisms seem unlikely to generate clear rights.