≠Khoadi-//Hôas covers 3,364 square kilometres and is home to about as many people, most of whom speak Khoekhoegowab, a language shared by the Damara and Nama.

The registration of the conservancy was initiated by the active local farming community, the Grootberg Farmers’ Union, and ≠Khoadi-//Hôas was registered as one of the first four conservancies in Namibia in 1998.

The Conservancy has its own community owned lodge and campsite and they have outsourced the management to a company that offers lodge management and marketing services. They have also obtained the tourism concession in Hobatere Concession next to Etosha National Park.

Much of the spectacular environment of the ≠Khoadi-//Hôas Conservancy was formed by cataclysmic events that heralded the separation of the supercontinent known as Gondwanaland around 120 million years ago. Between 132 and 125 million years ago, a series of eruptions from volcanic fissures deposited extensive lava fields across what later became the edge of southwestern Africa. The lava eruptions accumulated as a series of basalt layers, now wonderfully visible as the western edge of the Etendeka Plateau around the Grootberg Mountain, the most distinctive landmark of the area. The metamorphic gneiss complexes and granites which underlie the eastern two-thirds of the conservancy formed much earlier ― between 1,650 and 2,500 million years ago ― and are amongst the oldest in Namibia. The elevations of the age-old hills of ≠Khoadi-// Hôas range between 600 and 1,600 metres above sea level, and the varied topography, rock and soil types offer a great diversity of habitats for both plant and animal life. The dramatic but challenging environment generally has shallow soils, resulting in difficult farming conditions. Low rainfall and high evaporation rates have created a distinctly arid environment. Annual rainfall ranges between 250 millimetres in the northeast and 100 millimetres in the south-west. Over three-quarters of all rain falls during the first three months of the year, but varies tremendously from month to month, year to year and place to place. This often forces wildlife to move over large areas in search of food, way beyond the boundaries of the conservancy.