Coastal resources such as mining, fisheries, and tourism are vital for communities in developing countries, many of which live in abject poverty. Yet global patterns indicate growing levels of economic inequality between the custodians of these resources and the people who exploit them, as well as an increasing incidence in poverty. Drawing from empirical research in South African and Mozambican coastal communities, this book aims to deepen our knowledge about coastal resource use, who benefits and who loses and in what circumstances, why benefits and losses are distributed in the way that they are, the main blockages to greater equity, and strategies to enhance more equitable benefit sharing. These findings have relevance and application for coastal livelihoods, rural governance and resource sustainability across a world in which community rights are increasingly undermined through land grabbing, unequal power relations, and externally driven development interventions.