Des Eléphants & Des Hommes (Laos)
Des Eléphants & Des Hommes was founded in 2003 and focuses on environmental education and elephant conservation in Laos. Its partnership with the Elephant Conservation Center, a leading conservation facility, has led to innovative conservation solutions being developed for elephants in Laos, the so-called "Land of a Million Elephants", where only 800 elephants remain.
The Nam Pouy National Protected Area (NPA) is home to Laos' second largest wild elephant population (40 to 60 individuals). However, little is being done to protect this population, which remains critically endangered due to deforestation and poaching.
To this effect, in 2021/2022, the Eurofins Foundation contributed to the “Nam Pouy Wild Elephant Conservation and Community Development Project”.
Des Eléphants & Des Hommes, together with their technical partner, the Elephant Conservation Center, coordinate the actions of rangers, mahouts, and local community members and provide them with the training and equipment needed to support the protection of the NPA and its wild elephant population.
DEDH also helps devise safety plans to protect existing wild elephants and release captive elephants to reinforce the declining wild elephant population in the NPA.
Partnering with Objectif Science International, the objective is for communities who traditionally depend on the unsustainable exploitation of the NPA to derive their income from the management of the NPA and scientific tourism.
Eurofins Foundation's contribution helped DEDH purchase equipment, computers and office furniture for rangers. It also helped fund a week-long training for rangers.
Beyond supporting the rangers, Eurofins Foundation has positively benefitted 60 wild Asian elephants and all other species living in the NPA (nebula panther, gaur, muntjac, hornbill, collared bear, tortoise, reptiles, macaques, gibbon, civet, langur, serow) as well as 192.000 Ha of mixed Deciduous Tropical Forest.
Indirect beneficiaries include approximately 3.500 people living in 8 villages spread around the NPA, as they are now better protected from crop-raiding elephants threatening their fields. The forest resources they rely on for survival and trade (NTFPs) are better protected from illegal exploiters. Protected flora and fauna is better protected from poachers too, contributing to the attractiveness of the NPA as a potentially strong ecotourism destination that can eventually help develop the local economy.
In 2022/2023, the Eurofins Foundation supported the transition of the Elephant Conservation Center (ECC) from a tourism-sustained model towards an Education, COnservation and REsearch sustained-model: ECORE
The ECC has an extensive experience in the field of conservation, education and scientific research (with past and ongoing research projects implemented with the Smithsonian Institution (USA), IRD (France) and other international research agencies and universities), motivating this transition.
Since the start of the project, infrastructure development has started and several major milestones have been reached :
- 11 rangers and 12 elephant caretakers have followed a course on patrolling, sample collection, first aid and mapping at the ECC;
- 30 students from the 5th year of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, National University of Laos (NUOL) have attended a course on elephant vetcare;
- A Memorandum of understanding was signed between ECC and NUOL;
- An agreement was signed between ECC and France-based Insitut de Recherche et de Developpement (IRD) to screen research projects and establish a joint Scientific Committee;
- A PhD student from the University of Kyoto and a Veterinary surgeon from France will both apply for field study time within the ECORE facility by 2024;
- A Veterinary workshop including 8 participants took place between the 4th-7th December 2023 at ECORE/ECC;
- The ECORE programme is advertised by the Conservation Biology Laboratory of the Smithsonian Institution, Elephant Care International and Work4Wildlife.
In 2023/2024, the Eurofins Foundation will continue to provide funding to this initiative.
This project contributes to the following United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals
