WHAT WE DO
Elephant Village gives rescued elephants a new home where they are free from abusive work. Elephant Village provides local villagers a better livelihood, so they can stop their slash and burn tradition.

WHY WE DO IT
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.

WHO WE WORK WITH
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 recognised way.

The luxurious tented camp, close to our Elephant Village, offers alternative accommodation during the 2 Day Mahout Experience

• Shangri Lao explorer camp

MISSION STATEMENT

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 of 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 naturalised 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.

The aim of “Elephant Village”:

is not only to rescue working elephants from the harsh, abusive environments in which they must make their livings but also give them a brighter future by providing rides or mahout training courses to tourists. This is relatively easy work for elephants, and allows them to earn their own living.

In addition, "Elephant Village" provides the opportunity for tourists to get to know these very special animals, observe them and spend some time with them, and allows the elephants to roam freely in the jungle, group together in herds, mate and start new families...

The project employs a full-time veterinarian ensuring that the elephants receive ongoing, high-quality medical attention.

Elephant Village also supports the local community and increase people's well-being alongside working towards the survival and safety of the elephants. The Project employs inhabitants of Xieng Lom as Elephant Lodge staff, maintenance workers, cooks and guides; a few also train to become mahouts.

NEWSLETTER

Mr. Michael Roehrig, the Deputy Manager of Elephant Village recently participated on a workshop on Corporate Social Responsibility in Tourism.  The CSR Guidelines in Tourism: Travelling in an environmentally friendly manner Carefully selecting accommodation Comparing destinations Involving local communities Paying adequate prices Respecting labor standards Economic partnerships Creating transparency

Medal of Honor

On the 31st December 2010 the owner of Elephant village, Markus Peschke, received a Medal of Honor award for his outstanding contribution to the tourist industry in Luang Prabang. Markus arrived in Laos 13 years ago when there were very few tourists and began by opening the ‘Indochina Restaurant’. This was followed by the first Tour Company ‘Tiger Trails’, the ‘Lao Spirit Resort’ and later the ‘Elephant Village’ and the ‘Shangri-Lao classic explorer camp’.

Markus is shown here being presented with his award by Mr. Khamtan from the Luang Prabang Provincial Tourism Department.

Dangerous Digger

Elephant village was recently successful in removing this digger from joining land at Ban Xieng Lom Village. The digger was being used to excavate thousands of tons of sand and gravel from the bed and banks of the Nam Khan River. The effects of continued excavation could have been catastrophic to the village, and other areas downstream, potentially causing the river to speed up and then forming ox-bow lakes, and further bank erosion, destroying fertile arable land. This could have been disastrous to the local farming community.

The cold affects everyone

Unusual for this time of the year, the weather changed dramatically, and on the 15th March 2011 we had rain for three days and nights with the temperature dropping from a healthy 37 C to an overnight low of 12 C. Not only did this affect some of the Staff, but also 4 of our Elephants who developed a cold. After some medication, and a rest, they all recovered nicely but at one stage we even bought some “jumbo’ sized blankets to keep them warm. After the temperature increased the elephants were back to their normal happy selves.

A new arrival

We can now proudly announce we have a new arrival at Elephant village. Surprisingly it’s not one of our elephants, but in fact one of the Shangri-Lao horses. The baby horse was born on the 10 th of March at 4 o’clock in the morning.

Rob Reznik, the General manager at Elephant Village, was lucky enough to be sleeping at the camp on the night of the arrival and was able to capture the happy moment alongside the security guard. We can confirm that both, mother and foal are healthy and are able to rest in the hands of the horse keeper at the camp.

Elephant Village sponsors bags for the Government department

Elephant Village sponsors sign boards for the Government department