A view of Mondulkiri
 


ECO-TOURISM PROJECT

A true work in progress the Elephant Valley Project has become the central location for our Works in Mondulkiri. To cut a long story short after working in the Phnong villages of Mondulkiri for 19 months trying to treat sick and mistreated elephants with a mix of veterinarian care and mahout orientated education the directors of ELIE decided to develop the Elephant Valley Project as a alternative approach to domestic elephant care in Cambodia. Currently under ongoing construction and improvement an elephant house and school is being developed alongside a guesthouse.

The aim of which is to provide a safe location away from the villages to treat sick and injured elephants while providing a hands on approach to education and welfare improvement. The Elephant Valley is a series of interlaced rented farms that is surrounded by farms that allows us to simulate the same environs that mahouts look after and care for their elephants in while providing a large area of forest to allow elephants to escape human activity for the longest period of time possible during a normal working day.

  • Rest and Recuperation centre, Elephant House and Feeding Ground
  • An active rice farm
  • Habitation of employees and villagers that live on site
  • Guesthouse and feeding ground
  • Schooling area and elephant riding jump off point
  • Future location of our volunteer accomodation 
     

     
    • The farms are all part of the local traditional way of swithen farming (slash and burn that is later allowed to re-grow) and allows us to develop feeding grounds in amongst active rice fields. 

    The development of Eco tourism through the construction and development of a guesthouse is our man aim at supporting these expensive activities and currently we have being enjoying some initial success. Self Sustainability is goal that is not only possible but also possible in Mondulkiri. 

    Since Nov 07 we have been doing day treks and overnight stays with our two elephants, GeeYuul and Kdoon (EasyRider and Happy Lucky, literal translations of their names) with visiting foreign and local tourists. The monsoon will be a three month period of rest for the elephants and staff and we will open the guesthouse proper in October 2008. We hope to provide a place where not only elephants can escape and relax and recover but people can to. 

    Currently we charge $50 a day per visitor (half price for kids) and this includes all food, transport and accomodation if necessary. This money is approximately 50% profit which goes to pay for the 180 days where we don’t have visitors, only elephants. 

    Please browse through the photos  and contact us if you are interested in coming to stay or just visit.