Over the past century, the wild cheetah population worldwide has been drastically reduced with a world population estimated at less than 12,000 individuals. The reasons for this decline include habitat loss, reduction of the natural prey base, and persecution due to conflict with humans. Pressures from increasing human populations changed land use across much of the cheetah's range, and 'wilderness' areas are now reduced to small patches of intact habitat surrounded by a matrix of human and livestock-dominated land. In addition, the captive population of cheetahs is not selfsustaining although captive breeding and cooperative management has increased during the past decade. The best hope for long-term cheetah survival rests in a few countries in sub-Saharan Africa with relatively large cheetah populations (Tanzania, Kenya and Botswana) and Namibia, which supports the largest remaining cheetah population around 3,000 animals. In Namibia, more than 90% of the cheetah population resides outside of protected areas on livestock and wildlife farmlands in the north-central regions of the country, an area of approximately 275,000 km2, with an increasing number of cheetah now inhabiting the north west communal farming area.