Planting Peace: How One Organization Is Rescuing Elephants and Restoring Their Lives

More than 10,000 elephants in Asia are currently used for logging, forced to drag heavy loads under conditions that cause chronic physical and psychological damage. A further 2,000 are exploited in tourist camps — ridden, made to perform, kept chained between sessions. The suffering behind elephant tourism is largely invisible to the people paying for it.

Planting Peace has been working to change this since 2017, rescuing elephants from logging operations, starvation, and captivity and bringing them to sanctuaries where they live chain-free for the rest of their lives. Their first rescue, Mae — a 35-year-old elephant from Laos who had spent her life in logging work and was found chained and starving — became the foundation of a campaign that has since grown into one of the more credible elephant welfare organisations operating in Southeast Asia.

Each rescue requires permits, transport, veterinary care, and lifetime sanctuary support. Donations fund all of it directly.