The Issue:

Fewer than 400 wild elephants remain in Laos, and the population in Nam Pak Protected Area is threatened by human-elephant conflict, habitat degradation, and limited conservation capacity. The application identifies the root cause as the conflict between poverty and conservation: communities bear the costs of living alongside elephants but receive little benefit, while ranger patrols, monitoring, and conflict response remain under-resourced. The project addresses this by creating tourism-based livelihoods, establishing a community conservation fund, and strengthening local conservation capacity so that protecting elephants becomes an economic asset for local communities rather than a burden.

What are Measurable Outcomes Expected from the Funding of this Project?

• Six local community members are hired and certified as eco-tourism guides through formal guide and human-elephant conflict training.

• At least three mineral salt lick sites are established and monitored by camera traps, with documented wild elephant visitation.

• A community conservation fund is established using visitor fees to co-fund ranger patrols and human-elephant conflict response across 14 villages.

 What Would a Successful Project Result In?

A fully operational community ecotourism program generates sustainable income for local guides and 14 villages while visitor fees continuously fund ranger patrols, biodiversity monitoring, and protection of approximately 30 endangered wild Asian elephants in the 30,000-hectare Nam Pak Protected Area.