 The Range Wide Conservation Program for Cheetah and African Wild Dogs (RWCP), the brainchild of Sarah Durant and Rosie Woodroffe (of the Zoological Society of London), was started in 2007 with the primary aim of ensuring better conservation measures for the cheetah and the wild dog – two species with very low population densities. A joint initiative by the ZSL, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and the IUCN Cat Specialist Group, the program has among its major goals a review of the conservation policies adopted by the South African countries, and study and action on illegal hunting and trade of the cheetah. In a 2007 publication, Durant emphasised the role of land management and improvement in connectivity across the range in cheetah conservation, in the lack of which the populations might face severe fragmentation.
