In the latest case, people living around the arid northern community of Khorixas looked out one morning last month to find a new road being bulldozed through an area they had been managing, together with the tourism company Ultimate Safaris and the nonprofit Save The Rhinos Trust, as habitat for black rhinos, an endangered species. The conservancies, together with the tourism company, went to court, alleging that the road, and mining project it will serve, showed up on the scene "without any consultation" with them. They argued that heavy machinery and blasting for open pit mining of tin and other metals will push black rhinos out of the area. Experience elsewhere in Namibia suggests mining workers, often brought in from China, are also likely to accelerate poaching for the rhino horn trade. That matters because Namibia is home to almost a third of the 3500 black rhinos remaining in the world, and most of them live outside national parks, under the protection of conservancies like the ones around Khorixas. It also matters because the partnership between the tourism company and the conservancies has become the basis for the local economy. Ultimate Safaris currently operates two tourism camps in the area, with a third lodge for high-end travelers currently in development at a cost of US$1.7 million, all of them "solely focusing on rhino tourism." The three lodges will provide 70 jobs (up from 40 now) and produce upwards of US$170,000 annually in cash payments to the conservancies, according to the company.