This chapter presents the KSLCI as a case study for adapting and applying ecosystem management approaches that recognise the vital role of communities and traditional customary arrangements. It also describes and explores the unique cultural context and opportunities for conservation in the KSL and the Hindu Kush-Himalayan area more generally. After situating the reader in the KSL itself, the chapter will: (i) explore the inter-linkages between spiritual, cultural, and environmental values of the landscape; (ii) illustrate a range of customary systems of resource governance and managed in the different KSL areas; (iii) provide an analysis of relationships between customary and statutory systems of natural resource management and governance; and (iv) highlight enabling and inhibiting factors that affect the local realisation of rights and responsibilities. The chapter draws on the extensive and in-depth research and information assembled in a series of KSL baseline surveys and feasibility assessment reports, including traditional knowledge surveys completed in each of the three participating countries and summarised in the KSLCI Feasibility Assessment Report