Our mission is to protect and preserve the African elephant.
Through habitat protection, community outreach, and the rescue and hand-rearing of young elephant orphans, Elephant Havens aims to become a leading voice in wildlife conservation awareness and wildlife protection. We envision a world in which African elephants and local communities co-exist without conflict, and where young elephant orphans are saved and reintroduced into the wild.
By educating local communities on elephant behavior and habitat protection, we hope to instill an understanding of the benefits of conservation. At the same time, we are working with farmers to discover specific areas of conflict with local elephants. Finding and implementing creative solutions to keep elephants from trampling crops and devastating livestock will go a long way towards reducing the human-elephant conflict.
Using funds from generous donors, we built the Elephant Havens orphanage on the edge of the Okavango Delta. This sanctuary for abandoned and orphaned elephants is a safe place for them to be cared for until they can be reintroduced into the wild. We encourage both foreign visitors and local community members to visit and learn more about these remarkable animals. With access and education, we hope to bridge some of the gap between communities and wildlife.
We are also creating educational activities and experiences aimed at helping people of all ages to understand and appreciate wildlife and wildlands, encouraging people to take action to conserve it now and for future generations.
Elephant Havens Wildlife Foundation was formed in 2017 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation based in the United States.
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If your company matches employee donations, your gift can go twice as far to help our young elephants. We can supply any needed documentation. See our FAQs page for details. Every donation helps us rescue and save more orphaned elephants.
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Learn more about Elephant Havens
History
Meet the Team
Elephant Orphans
We are working to protect and preserve important portions of land on the boundaries of the Okavango Delta. The world’s largest delta, this magnificent UNESCO World Heritage Site includes both permanent water from the Okavango River and seasonal wetlands that are created when the river floods the semi-arid Kalahari Basin savannah. This results in a unique region of biodiversity among plants and animals.
By acquiring and fencing adjacent lands, we are able to secure wildlife areas and reduce human-wildlife conflict in these delta woodlands, wetlands and grasslands. In return, we are providing jobs and drilling water wells for the nearby communities.
One of our protected reserve areas serves as a soft release site for young elephants who have graduated from the orphanage. Here, they will live independently until mature enough to be truly rewilded. These 1,000 acres are secured from human encroachment by nearly 5 miles of electric fencing to preserve riverine woodlands, seasonal wetlands, mopane and terminalia forests and acacia plains for an assortment of delta wildlife and these young elephants.
The orphanage itself, where the youngest elephants roam daily, also serves to preserve additional delta habitat from overgrazing and cultivation. Triple the size of the original footprint, we now have room to rotate the babies to new foraging areas and allow some over-grazed sections to recover.
Because we are located in seasonal wetlands comprised of the same unique bio-systems in the nearby Okavango World Heritage Site, we are always working to procure and protect additional habitat lands. We also seek public and private partnerships to extend the reach of these habitat preservation initiatives.
