OUR MISSION
The TONG-BAI FOUNDATION is financed by your donations only. All money raised by the TONG-BAI FOUNDATION is used exclusively for the elephants and their maintenance. The support we receive through working closely with ELEPHANT SPECIAL TOURS allows us to effectively realize the Foundation’s goal of leading the elephants into a safe and healthy future.
Please help us to ensure that domesticated elephants can live a decent life in their ancestral habitat forest – surrounded by mountains, rivers and rice fields.
WHO WE ARE

BIRGIT SIEBERLING
1st Chairwoman of Tong Bai e.V. Germany

BODO JENS FÖRSTER
Organizational Management Tong Bai Foundation Thailand
Bodo Förster is the head of the Tong Bai Foundation in Thailand. He worked as an elephant keeper in many zoos and wildlife parks in Germany and Europe before founding the Thai travel company Elephant Special Tours in 1994. Through years of training in Europe and Asia, he qualified as an elephant trainer. The protection and conservation of the Asian elephants is close to his heart. With his team, Bodo Förster makes a personal contribution at his camps in Mae Sapok every day, which is located on the edge of the Doi Inthanon National Park in northern Thailand. He acts as a mediator not only between humans and animals but also different cultures and religions. In 2016, he was awarded the Lotus award by the Thailand Tourism Authority by Her Royal Highness Princess Ubol Ratana.
OUR PROJECTS
OUR OWN VET(ERINARIAN) POINT
AN ON-GOING CHALLANGE
guaranteed stress-free on-site medical treatment
The production of hey has a long history in Europe but is completely atypical in Thailand. The long rainy season and high humidity make hay production very difficult. The hay harvest, which is so healthy and herb-scented for elephants, can only be harvested in December and February, and the widespread application of pesticides must be avoided altogether, making annual productivity comparatively low and hay accordingly cost-intensive with 7 BHT per kilogramm. Only in a few places in the country this high-quality feed is produced. One of these places is the village of Ta Goa Muang in the district of Lampun, about 80km from Mae Sapok. Here, a group of 20 small farmers collectively cultivates an area of about 48 hectares (300 Rai). The costs for a healthy mix of different food amount to 50 EUR each elephant a month.