Nam Pouy National Protected Area (NPA) is found in Xaygnabouly Province in Northern Laos. The protected area was identifed as a top priority for Elephant Conservation by the Government of Lao PDR at a National Elephant Conservation Meeting held in 2008.

WWF have been working on elephant issues in Laos since 2005, primarily focused in Southern Laos which is a WWF priority landscape. However, given the Governments prioritisation and the relevance of the Nam Pouy elephant population in the region, WWF with the support of WWFs AREAS (Asian Rhino and Elephant Action Strategy) worked with the Government to develop and endorse a project on Nam Pouy NPA.

In February 2010 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs signed the MoU for the project, ‘Improving the Patrolling and Law Enforcement for Nam Pouy NPA Management Project’. This overarching project is working to integrate elephant issues into provincial planning processes and strengthened capacity to address elephant conservation and human-elephant confict in Nam Pouy NPA and across the country.

The Lao Governments partnership with WWF focuses to restore, maintain and increase populations of the Asian elephant within well managed protected sanctuaries through the implementation of project activities such as; increased monitoring and data collection on wild elephant population conducted by Nam Pouy NPA staff, military and villagers. Improvement of forest conservation, protection and other land use management practices. Reduction of illegal human activity and human confict, through the development of guidelines for actions to prevent human-elephant conficts, and to react as instances occur, whilst also training personnel in law enforcement and patrolling procedures to mitigate the threat of elephant poaching in elephant priority sites.

In addition, technical support provided by WWF is currently assisting the development of the National Elephant Management Action Plan.

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