The Doro ! Nawas and Ûibasen Twyfelfontein recently obtained a court order to halt road construction work for planned mining operations to protect rhinos in their area. They are supported by the traditional authority Aodaman and Ultimate Safaris, a tourism partner, in their lawsuit against mining entrepreneurs Ottillie Ndimulunde and Timoteus Mashuna. The lawsuit is also directed against the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Mines, the Commissioner for the Environment and the Commissioner for Mines. A statement from the conservation groups said that the Commissioners' decision to issue an Environmental Clearance Certificate (ECC) and grant mining claims in a key rhino sanctuary violates national policy on mining in protected areas. "We are committed to protecting the black rhinos that we received from the Ministry of the Environment in 2007," said Laurens Hoeseb, chairman of Doro ! Well, what. "This includes plans and strategies to protect a Joint-Management Area (JMA) as the core habitat of rhinos. We feel betrayed by the Ministry of the Environment, which has approved mining in our JMA." The JMA was founded by Doro ! Nawas and Ûibasen Twyfelfontein established 25 years ago. In 2018, the Sorris Sorris Conservancy added additional land to the JMA and signed an administrative agreement with the other two conservation associations. Since then, all three have signed joint venture agreements with Ultimate Safaris to establish high-end tourist camps focused primarily on rhino tracking. The associations said that these plans, which are expected to generate an estimated income of N$311 million over a 25-year period, could never be realized given the mining plans. The managers of the protected areas explained that the fact that the Office of the Commissioner for the Environment (OEC) is willing to allow rhinos and other valuable wildlife, from which many members of the region benefit through tourism, to be threatened by mine construction that benefits a wealthy few from outside is a cause for great concern