The Surin Province of Thailand is North East of Bangkok near the Cambodian boarder. The Provincial government has approached Elephant Nature Foundation to help develop elephant-based tourism in Surin. Families of elephants will be able to roam freely in natural habitat. This is good news for conservation.

The goal is to establish sustainably managed elephant tourism as an alternative to Elephant street begging, zoos, circuses and elephant rides. The elephant mahouts will be provided with a steady income. This income will supplement some of the money that the mahouts previously made street begging with their elephant, thereby encouraging them to stay at the park.

There are over 300 elephants registered in the Surin province and the vast majority of them are trapped in the unfortunate trade of street begging. This is a terrible life for elephants who require thousands of pounds of fresh vegetables and clean water daily. Street begging reduces an elephant's life expectancy by at least 50%.

The Surin government has already set aside over 2,000 acres of land, enough to maintain a breeding population of 300 elephants, approximately 10% of the existing population of Asian elephants living in captivity in Thailand today. In Surin, we have a chance to change history - to save the Asian elephant from extinction and give them a life worth living for generations to come. The impact this project will have for elephant conservation is huge.

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