Elephant Livelihood Initiative Environment (ELIE)

Background Elephant Livelihood Initiative Environment (ELIE) is a registered local non-government organization, or not-for-profit, based in Mondulkiri, Cambodia. ELIE was founded in 2006 and started by providing free veterinarian care and mahout-orientated education to the families and communities that owned captive elephants throughout Mondulkiri province. In 2007, The Elephant Valley Project (EVP) was launched as an elephant sanctuary developed to create a home for injured, old or overworked elephants and is now ELIE's centerpiece for elephant welfare and conservation. This elephant sanctuary has been developed in close partnership with the local indigenous Bunong community of Pu Tr... read more Background Elephant Livelihood Initiative Environment (ELIE) is a registered local non-government organization, or not-for-profit, based in Mondulkiri, Cambodia. ELIE was founded in 2006 and started by providing free veterinarian care and mahout-orientated education to the families and communities that owned captive elephants throughout Mondulkiri province. In 2007, The Elephant Valley Project (EVP) was launched as an elephant sanctuary developed to create a home for injured, old or overworked elephants and is now ELIE's centerpiece for elephant welfare and conservation. This elephant sanctuary has been developed in close partnership with the local indigenous Bunong community of Pu Trom, and sits within their community forest. ELIE is unique in terms of its primary source of funding now comes from income generated by local and international visitors coming to experience the elephants as part of the ecotourism project at the EVP. Since 2006 the organisation has evolved and grown, with the development of EVP as an exciting ecotourism project, providing a sustainable financing mechanism funding all of ELIE's elephant care and welfare, community development and forest protection programs. ELIE's Vision "To improve the captive elephant's health and welfare situation by the development of an elephant sanctuary while providing province-wide veterinary care and associated social support programs for the Bunong people." Goals 1) To improve the health and welfare conditions of the captive elephant population of Mondulkiri 2) To develop a sanctuary for working elephants to rest and retire to in Mondulkiri Province 3) To conserve the wild elephants natural habitat 4) To provide employment and job based training to the Bunong community and mahouts 5) To support the local community to protect their forest and natural resources, the habitat of the elephants. 6) To identify the main pressures on the community and their forest, and provide community support programs to alleviate these pressures.