About Us

Adventure – but with a new community based focus!

Like nature over time, evolution has happened – Mondulkiri Adventures has evolved into an exciting new venture keeping the best of what we are good at.

Bunong Elephant Project situated in Mondulkiri, Cambodia’s largest most sparsely populated province, is an exciting new elephant sanctuary that has been developed in consultation and partnership with the local Bunong community.

Cambodian run, the Elephant Project is dedicated to promoting the welfare of both elephants and the local indigenous community.

Started as an eco-tourism organisation, the Bunong Elephant Project provides much needed income for the indigenous people by renting their elephants. Now elephants at our sanctuary spend their time in our project’s forest and are no longer exploited commercially or put under stress with elephant rides, heavy farm work or logging. Instead, they can relax and live free in the forest eating bamboo, grass, playing in mud baths, swim in the river and more importantly socialize with other elephants.

The benefits of this approach are simple; an income is provided for the families who own and rely on these majestic animals for their livelihood; the forest is protected for all wildlife and elephants can be, well, elephants!

The Future

The elephants of Cambodia and South East Asia in general are under real threat. The overall population has halved in just three generations and the captive population is growing old.

Torn, the Cambodian founder of the Bunong Elephant Project explains:

“In 2006, during my work with Elephant Livelihood Initiative Environment (E.L.I.E) I travelled across Mondulkiri Province to explore and did my research on domestic elephants. I found just 63 elephants living in the entire province. Today there are less than 45 domestic elephants left in Mondulkiri Province and they are growing old. A single elephant is often owned by between 5 and 10 families and has many different mahouts (elephant care takers) who work the elephant for the benefit of their family. The Bunong people know their elephants are ageing and it is a real worry for them, but in order for elephants to breed they believe they must first marry. This is a lavish affair and very expensive and this presents a major problem; the Bunong are very poor. Through your support by visiting our project, it is hoped that in time we will be able to support the marriage of elephants and start a breeding program. That would be just fantastic!

Thank you for reading about the Bunong Elephant Project.  I hope you will visit us soon!”

Torn (Bunong Elephant Project Founder)

The Bunong People

Introduction / History

Located in the remote mountainous northeast region of Cambodia, bordering Vietnam, Mondulkiri is the country’s largest province and is home to the second largest ethnic minority population, the Bunong (or Phnong). Renowned as elephant tamers, they comprise about 30,000 of the province’s estimated 43,000 residents. The Bunong language is the main language spoken in their homes and villages.

What Are Their Lives Like?
The Bunong culture and way of life is intimately associated with the forest area in which they live. Access to land and the forests is essential to their survival. The Bunong practice labour-intensive swidden (‘slash and burn’) agriculture, following a 15-20 year cycle, using one site for up to five years before moving to a new location.

What Are Their Beliefs?
The Bunong are normally not members of any organized religion but instead practice animism; this is to say that they believe all things have spirits – animals, plants, hills, stones, jars, buildings – everything. Their ancestors are also represented by spirits and the stability of their lives depends on the satisfactory appeasement of all these various types of spirits often through holding ceremonies and rituals.

What Are Their Needs?
Food and land protection: The Bunong experience a period of 3-5 months where the food grown in their fields runs out, so they must forage in the forest, hunt, fish or gather resin to sell. Major tracts of land have now been logged, sold or otherwise removed from the traditional ownership of the Bunong community, leading to a decrease in access to life-sustaining resources.

Literacy and education
The majority of Bunong do not have sufficient math skills to fairly buy or sell produce at the market, and few can properly count money or use a scale.They are frequently cheated by local traders. Their ability to interact with the broader society is limited, preventing adoption of innovations and ideas from the outside. Also, as outside influences encroach with alarming speed and impact, the Bunong are ill-equipped to confront the onslaught of changes. Lack of Khmer language skills also render them at even greater risk for exploitation.

Healthcare
Many serious diseases have a much higher rate of prevalence in Mondulkiri than in other provinces. Also, the Bunong do not possess basic information which could allow them to treat or prevent simple diseases.