Bring The Elephant Home (BTEH)

About us

Bring The Elephant Home (BTEH), registered in 2004, began an adoption program and fundraising campaigns to support the ongoing care of these elephants at ENP. This program has expanded to include other elephants rescued by BTEH over the years
In 2018 we opened a new office in South Africa, to study human-elephant coexistence, collaborate with local researchers and organisations and work on sustainable conflict mitigation.

Our mission is to better the chance of survival for elephants worldwide and to create a world where people and elephants can coexist in harmony.
It is our strong belief that we only achieve this through a holistic stakeholder approach with a focus on practical, sustainable solutions.

BTEH’s vision is to save elephants worldwide by restoring damaged ecosystems, creating suitable habitats for elephants and eliminating the cause of human-elephant conflicts

Objectives
• Preservation of the wild elephant, and restoration, expansion, connection and protection of habitat in collaboration with local partners;
• Implementing, testing and sharing knowledge about sustainable solutions and new technologies to encourage human-elephant coexistence;
• Mitigating human-elephant conflicts in collaboration with local stakeholders;
• Encouraging local participation in nature conservation and empowerment of local communities, among others by income-generating activities;
• Raising awareness about the importance of elephant conservation and nature in general.

Our work
• Elephant conservation in South Africa
• Elephant conservation in Thailand
• Elephant conservation on Borneo
• Ethical treatment of elephants in captivity
• Education and awareness

Projects
• Bee the Change: Elephants are scared or wary of bees. Dr. Lucy King developed the concept of beehive fencing, as a new and sustainable solution to avoid crop raiding in areas highly trafficked by elephants. Beehive fencing is a new phenomenon in Asia and these projects aim to contribute to a global understanding of HEC (Human-Elephant Conflict) solutions.
• Conservation leadership programme: Empowering local communities to improve elephant conservation in Thailand
• Conservation Action: We work on improving the forests, and on cultivating green corridors, hence creating and sustaining a more suitable habitat. A more suitable habitat for elephants makes elephants want to stay in the protected areas, and will diminish the human-elephant conflict.
• Research: BTEH organized Participatory Action Research to bring community members and park rangers together to talk about conflict reconciliation. Participatory Action Research facilitates dialogue and stimulates ownership of conservation projects by community members.
• HECTOR (Human-Elephant Conflict Tool for Ongoing Research) app: This is an easy to use mobile application to assist with informed decision making and to make allowance to log elephant encounters immediately into a centralized database.

Antoinette van de Water is the Director of Bring The Elephant Home (BTEH).

For other net participants we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.