Elephant Village has been a pioneer in combining meaningful tourism activities with intensive village cooperation and care for endangered Elephants.
“Elephant Village” is a privately owned elephant camp and tour destination approved by the Lao government and operated by international specialists and volunteers who focus on protection and rehabilitation of elephants in Laos. The site is located in a lush jungle valley on the banks of the Nam Khan River conveniently located just 15 km out of Luang Prabang. Elephant Village Tours Luang Prabang
Elephant Village gives rescued elephants a new home where they are free from abusive work. Elephant Village provides local villagers a better livelihood through job engagements.
Elephant Village operates under the principle of care & share. By caring for the elephants and sharing with the local communities Elephant Village ensures that everyone benefits from your visit…..you included.
Elephant Village employs a full time veterinarian who works not just with the elephants but trains the mahouts and local people how to care for their elephants in an internationally recognized way.
Elephant Village Tours Luang Prabang
Laos Background – Elephant Village
Laos was known as the Land of a Million Elephants (Lane Xang) but the elephant in Laos is now a profoundly endangered species. Some 1600 remain, of which an estimated 560 work in the forest industry harvesting timber.
But harvesting timber in Laos is diminishing and it’s just a matter of time before this becomes obsolete. This translates into hundreds of jobless elephants.
Keeping an elephant is very costly and labor-intensive, above all because elephants need tremendous amounts of food.
So, what can be done with those elephants?
If answers are not found quickly, elephants may be sold to the highest bidder, or worse.
There have been a few efforts towards releasing elephants into the wild in Thailand, though with little success. Domesticated elephants are no longer naturalized to life in the jungle and there is little ‘wild’ left to them any way. Thus, releasing elephants doesn’t appear to be a viable alternative.
These former logging elephants face a bleak future because they will find themselves on the margin of urban environments with no chance of finding adequate food or water and no access to veterinary care. Some say, many of the soon-to-be jobless elephants may even be killed, or abandoned to a slow starvation.
So, how can their survival be ensured and who is going to take care of them?
The tourism industry provides a possible solution!
Elephant Village Activity Tours in Luang Prabang
