Location: Thailand
Recommended by Emily of 2 Generation Travellers
The Surin Project operates in Surin Elephant Village and is aimed at providing improved living conditions for captive Asian elephants through sustainable tourism.
However, Surin Elephant Village is not an official Elephant Sanctuary. They take in elephant trainers and their elephants to keep the humans off the street and the elephants out of their chains. The elephants are free to roam the grounds.
How do I know it’s ethical?
The Surin Project is run by Save Elephant Foundation (SEF), a non-for project Thai organization dedicated to providing care and assistance to captive elephants for over 2 decades. The founder of SEF, Saengduean Chailert, is an award-winning conservationist who has dedicated her life to animal welfare.
Description of the Experience
The Surin Project aims to improve the living conditions for captive elephants by providing economic suitability to their owners (mahouts) via ethical volunteer tourism. The goal is to manage sustainable tourism as an alternative to unethical practices such as begging, elephant rides and circuses.
Currently, the Elephant Study Center subsidizes approximately 200 mahouts and their elephants to live in the centre by paying them a weekly salary plus incentives to part-take in volunteer tourism. This in turn gets Elephants off the streets; with the lack of employment opportunities and the deterioration of the elephant’s natural habitat many mahouts have been forced to take their elephants into the big cities and beg on the streets.
The innovative concept provides an alternative form of elephant-based eco-tourism by providing tourists a personal interaction with elephants. The program allows volunteers to spend time with the elephants by walking them, bathing and swimming with them at the river, feeding them, planting grass, sugarcane, and bamboo, building elephant shelters, and gaining up-close interactions.
By increasing the number of volunteers at the Surin Elephant Village, not only do the funds financially support the elephants and their owners, but it also raises awareness to the locals and government that tourists are interested in this type of self-sustaining eco-tourism. There is progress present because the government has set aside 2000 acres of land for elephants and their mahouts with intentions to reforest the area.
Company/ Cost:
Volunteering for the Surin Project can be undertaken by anybody over the age of 18 (unless accompanied by an adult) for 1 to 8 weeks. The starting volunteer contribution (cost) is $520 AUD for 1 week. This includes transport, accommodation, and three (3) meals per day, plus a T-Shirt & re-usable water bottle. The program is available all year round and is a truly eye-opening experience.


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This is one post on a series of ethical animal tourism posts by travel content creators. The experiences cover all seven continents and a variety of animals. Ensure that your animal experience is an ethical one.
Learn More About Ethical Animal Tourism
10 Questions to Ask to Ensure the Encounter is Ethical?