PROTECTING HABITAT

RANGER PATROLS

The ECC is in charge of training and equipping the current Ranger Team. Together with the Sayaboury Provincial Agriculture and Forestry Office, the ECC organises field missions to tighten law enforcement in the Nam Pouy National Protected Area, home to Laos’ second largest wild elephant population.

HABITAT CONSERVATION

The forest belongs to the elephants, and they belong to the forest. Protecting their habitat is paramount to any successful conservation work. Not only elephants require vast areas of forest to feed on, but they play a crucial role in the regeneration of the ecosystem they belong to. They are a keystone species. Without their presence, their ecosystem can collapse.

It is our top priority to contribute to the protection of the Nam Pouy National Protected Area, Lao elephants’ historical home, through several projects including buffer zones’ design & management, land use mapping & monitoring, as well as an improved law enforcement system to lower the negative impacts of illegal activities inside the area.

HEC MITIGATION

Wild elephants inhabiting the Nam Pouy National Protected Area can be pushed outside the boundaries of the forest and end up in villagers fields. This inevitably creates destruction of crops and sometimes infrastructures. Poor farmers can be tempted to retaliate if they continuously face such losses and it is our role to mitigate such conflict should they occur.

To do so, we implement a variety of solutions ranging from agricultural advice to local communities, to early warning systems or deterrents. The use of drones, bee hive fences and camera traps coupled with increased numbers of patrols and non-palatable crops plantations offers a wide array of solutions villagers and rangers can choose from.

REWILDING

Releasing elephants into the wild has been our most pressing objective since the ECC was created. The ECC made Lao history by releasing 5 elephants into the wild in the Nam Pouy National Protected Area. After a lengthy process aiming at creating a compatible elephant herd, elephants were eventually released on March, 18th, 2019. Rewilding a group of elephants requires following social patterns found in the wild.

Elephants are microchipped and their ex-mahouts keep track of their whereabouts using direct observation and GPS tracking during their patrols in the Nam Pouy National Protected Area. We are lucky to have access to this pristine and rich ecosystem and be backed up by a wonderful team of rangers and a supportive Government to undertake this extraordinary mission.

COMMUNITIES

Along with creating a safer space for wildlife, the ECC has some income generating activities planned for the Nam Pouy Protected Area that we hope will bring an alternative source of revenue for the local communities inhabiting neighbouring villages.

These consist in the development of scientific tourism and alternative agriculture projects. An anti-poaching campaign will also be launched as the programme develops.