Welcome to the first Asian Captive Elephant Standards newsletter. We warmly welcome you to our news hub, where we will provide you with quality news, updates, resources and events that we are involved in. We encourage your thoughts, features and newsletter contributions. If you have anything newsworthy or if you would just like to drop us a line, please send us an email and we will be in touch. 

COVID-19 has certainly been the unwelcome guest for everyone. Elephant camps and associated staff are still feeling the impact from the prolonged downturn in tourism and opportunity. Looking towards the future, we have a strong feeling that business will be brighter and better for Asian elephant tourism. Now is the perfect time for elephant camps to plan for the future in a responsible and sustainable way .

Can elephant tourism meet the UN Sustainable

Development Goals?

One of the most common issues that we face is the compatibility of sustainable tourism and endangered species management. Can these two very different sectors ever be compatible? Read our thoughts and insights on this topic on the Mekong Tourism member contribution space.

PATA/ACES Tourism Destination Resilience Capacity Development Project.

Asian Captive Elephant Standards is pleased to announce our collaboration with the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), to support the PATA Tourism Destination Resilience Capacity Development Project.  The project is implemented by PATA and ACES, with support of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). This project will assist DMOs to build resilience, withstand adversity and ensure sustainable tourism development. The expanded activities will address regenerative elephant tourism products through building capacity for industry and community resilience and sustainability. This is an exciting regional project that can bring some great training and support opportunities to companies emerging from COVID.

ACES will be working with National Tourism Authorities, DMCs, TOs and elephant camps in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR and Vietnam. These nations were selected because of their declining numbers of both wild and captive elephant populations. ACES will act as the link between elephant conservation and sustainable elephant tourism. We are actively seeking companies and businesses to work with in these four nations. If you are interested in becoming involved, please email us at elephantstandards@gmail.com. 

What's in a name?

Pop quiz: The best elephant tourism will be found at:

1. An elephant camp.
2. An elephant sanctuary.
3. Somewhere else altogether? 

Answer: Don’t pay attention to the name!   

Many visitors to southeast Asia mistakingly believe that you should only experience elephant tourism at an elephant sanctuary. Sanctuaries are safe havens where elephants can live out their days in peace, right? The reality is, no Asian elephant range country has ever set a standard or definition for what the term elephant sanctuary actually means. Just as that dubious island resort claims to have ‘ocean views’, businesses can call themselves an elephant sanctuary without needing to meet any minimum set of responsible or ethical travel standards. In contrast, some of the places offering the best levels of captive elephant care and management do not call themselves elephant sanctuaries at all.

Don’t be seduced or misled by the emotive window dressing – the term sanctuary is just a word.  Visitors need to be aware that there’s more to an elephant camps' success than what’s written in the advertising. This is why ensuring each Asian elephant venue participates in an independent audit and assessment is so important. Because that elephant sanctuary may actually be an unsuitable and unsustainable environment for both elephants and staff.

Website additions

ACES believes access to independent, academic research should be free and easily available. For this reason we have added a new page to our website called Elephant Research. This page includes links to high quality, peer-reviewed journal articles and research papers regarding captive elephant management and welfare.

If you are interest in learning more about what scientists are discovering about captive elephant management, please read these papers and support quality Asian elephant research and management. 

Do you have further questions about elephant tourism, animal welfare and responsible tourism? Please check out our Elephant FAQs page on our website. 

Don’t forget – Asian Captive Elephant Standards is an independent, science-based organisation and we will never ask for your donations or financial support (unless you are a camp applying for our services). This allows us to continue our mission of improving elephant camp welfare in an unbiased and transparent manner.