The WWCT was established in 2004. The founding work of this trust is the Leopard Project, which was initiated in 2000.

The founding members of the Trust are Andrew. M. Kittle and Anjali. C. Watson – a husband and wife team of wildlife researchers. Andrew is WWCT’s Primary Investigator and Anjali the Managing Trustee. Two former students who conducted their undergraduate thesis projects with us are now working for the Trust, Chanaka Kumara is WWCTs Research Officer and Nimalka Sanjeewani is WWCT’s Administrative and Outreach Officer. 

In keeping with the Trust mandate we emphasize the involvement of local partners and currently have two more students conducting their final year projects with us as well as a number of local volunteers from diverse backgrounds assisting our work, from providing photographs that help us to keep track of identified individual leopards to assisting with biodiversity surveys and outreach work.

The WWCT also believes in collaborating with organizations and individuals involved in similar work and continues to work closely with other researchers where possible.

Most work conducted by the WWCT is in conjunction with the Government of Sri Lanka Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Wildlife Conservation and Forest Department.