Cheetah Conservation Program

It’s a long-term investment in the future of Africa’s most endangered big cat.

The Origins Foundation is proud to announce a landmark five-year strategic partnership with The Metapopulation Initiative (TMI), becoming the organization’s primary funding partner and helping power the next era of science-based cheetah conservation across Southern Africa.

As Africa’s leading cheetah metapopulation management organization, TMI coordinates the complex science, genetics, veterinary care, and wildlife translocations necessary to establish healthy, self-sustaining cheetah populations across fragmented landscapes. Their work strengthens genetic diversity, expands range, and improves the long-term resilience of ecosystems across the continent.

This partnership provides the stability needed to expand field operations, strengthen metapopulation management, support wildlife translocations, and accelerate broader biodiversity conservation initiatives throughout Africa.

And the results are already changing the future for cheetahs.

Working alongside governments, reserve managers, veterinarians, conservation organizations, and landowners, TMI recently translocated 16 cheetahs across international borders into Mozambique and led the first successful reintroduction of cheetahs into the Kingdom of Eswatini after the species had been locally extinct for more than forty years.

These milestones demonstrate what is possible when conservation is built on collaboration, science, and long-term commitment.

This partnership also honors the legacy of Vincent van der Merwe, whose vision transformed carnivore conservation throughout Southern Africa and laid the foundation for many of today’s successes.

Over the next five years, The Origins Foundation’s investment will support:

• Wildlife translocations and range expansion
• Cheetah metapopulation management
• Veterinary and field operations
• Carnivore conservation initiatives
• Biodiversity restoration projects
• Collaborative conservation partnerships across Africa

Together, The Origins Foundation and TMI share a vision of thriving wildlife populations, healthy ecosystems, and a future where Africa’s natural heritage endures for generations to come.

Country

Southern Africa

Funding Status

Five-Year Strategic Partnership Secured

Why This Matters

Conservation success isn’t built in annual funding cycles.

It is built over decades.

This partnership provides the long-term stability required to expand science-based conservation efforts across Africa while ensuring that cheetahs continue to have the space, genetic diversity, and protection they need to thrive in the wild.

Because the future of conservation belongs to collaboration.