Elephant Shepherd Association

The Elephant Shepherd Association

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Protection, not Exploitation!

The Elephant Shepherd Association is located in Muang Thong, northwestern Laos. This region has a centuries-long tradition of catching wild elephants and training them to work for humans. However, it is time for these elephants to get a rest!

The Elephant Shepherd Association is now home to more than 60 elephants. We have two prime objectives: to conserve the wild elephant populations in the area while protecting those that are already living together with humans in or around the village. Our project has a bottom-up philosophy and was developed together with the villagers. As the region is very poor and the villagers can’t afford a loss of income, it was essential to convince them that they can earn more money by protecting elephants than by exploiting them.

By building a sanctuary for elephants together with the villagers, we aim to bring eco-tourism into the region. Already, connections with international student associations have been made. Our goal is to improve the income of the village through a steady flow of visitors. It is important to note, however, that our elephants are protected in the sanctuary, not exploited. This means that we will offer visitors to see and feed the elephants, but we won’t offer rides or other activities that generate big income in other so-called ‘sanctuaries’ in South-East Asia – for us, this would mean exploitation, not protection!

However, it is not only about creating a safe place for the more than 60 elephants that already live with us. Our mission is also to promote the preservation of the more than 100 wild elephants living in the same area. For this, the Elephant Shepherd Association works together with local communities and the government in order to promote sustainable solutions that help protect these elephants and demonstrate to the people that protection is better than exploitation. The project is located in a national forest reservation area and we are cooperating with the government to stop the constant threat of illegal elephant capture or other exploitation of the nature reserve.

The Elephant Shepherd Association will bring new jobs and sustainable income to the people of Muang Thong. As the villagers are excited by the project, they have agreed to help build the facilities. We successfully convinced the local government to provide free land for the project. Through this success in creating cooperation between the villagers, the government, and the Elephant Shepherd Association, we were able to reduce the costs for kick-starting the project significantly! Our aim is to raise $150.000. With this money, we will buy building materials to create the first and most necessary facilities, like a communal kitchen, a bathroom, and the first dormitories. From there one, we hope and believe that we will be able to generate enough money through eco-tourism to allow us to create sustainable growth in three areas: 1. Step-by-Step improvement of the sanctuary facilities; 2. Active protection of the wild elephants within the nature reserve; 3. Improve living standards for the involved villagers and the whole community.

Please donate to the Elephant Shepherd Association and help us to protect the elephants, our nature, and the local communities. For everyone who donates $100 or more, we offer an eVoucher for visiting the sanctuary. Whenever you come to Laos, drop by, be our guest for one night, enjoy the delicious local food and see how happy these former work-elephants live with us! Anyone who donates, no matter how much, can provide us with their email address: we will send a quarterly newsletter with pictures of our elephants and showing the progress of building the facilities for our elephant sanctuary. If you want to receive updates after donating, please provide me with your email address by sending a message through GoGetFunding.

Thank you for helping the Elephant Shepherd Association!