Elephant Nature Foundation

Loop Abroad’s students have been volunteering at the Elephant Nature Park in Thailand for the last 2 years. We support the mission of this magical place: to improve the treatment of domestic elephants and to restore and protect the forests of Thailand so that elephants can thrive in the wild once more.

The Elephant Nature Foundation has recently been granted a 10,000-acre section of forest in Cambodia to use as a habitat for rescued elephants. The property will feature an elephant hospital, where injured elephants can be healed and rehabilitated. Surrounding the hospital will be an area in which newly rehabilitated elephants can acclimate to the jungle, returning to the hospital as needed.

The rest of the area will be restored to its original forest ecosystem, with the elephants allowed to roam, feed, and multiply freely therein. The elephants at the Cambodian refuge will not have mahouts, and will live a life without interaction with humans, a long-standing goal of the Elephant Nature Foundation.

In the next few years, the Elephant Nature Foundation plans to build a series of raised platforms connected by walkways through the canopy, so that visitors can view elephants, gibbons, tigers, and other re-introduced species in their natural habitat.

Ground was broken on the reserve in July. Over August and September, 2 dorm-style volunteer residences will be built on the property. This is where we will stay when we visit. There is a lot of work to be done to help in this huge effort to restore the forests of Cambodia to their original state, including reforesting the area with native species of plants and building structures.

This is the chance to do some real community service on a groundbreaking project. The total project will restore one million acres of Cambodian land to its original jungle state. This could be the chance that Asian elephants need to return as a wild species, and we’ll be there just at the start of the project.

A part of your tuition goes to help fund the Elephant Nature Park’s mission in Cambodia. We will also help our students, if they like, to raise funds in their schools or communities to provide additional aid.