The year 2025 with and for elephants
The main focus of Save-Elephants' activities in 2025 was the southern part of the Republic of Congo and, to a lesser extent, southern Chad.
Fundraiser: Elephant Barrier Around the Fields
As part of strengthening cooperation with local peasant communities around Tsoulou in Congo, the VAKOVAKO platform raised the necessary 50,000 CZK to build another electric counter-slide Barriers. The beneficiaries of this fundraiser this time were villagers from Ngokango village.
During December 2025, construction of the barrier around the more than 5 hectares of the first part of the fields began and was successfully completed and launched in the first half of January 2026. This is only the third project of this type in the whole of Congo. The barrier helps prevent illegal elephant injuries or poaching, while protecting the crops of about 20 families from the entire village.
The film Congo: The Price of an Elephant and subsequent fundraiser
The main educational event of the year was the release of the documentary film Congo: The Price of an Elephant which can be view online. The documentary captures the journey of the Czech singer Bena Cristovao to the Congo, where he and Arthur go into the wilderness, the countryside and the cities in search of elephants and to uncover the illegal trade in ivory and bushmeat.
For a fundraiser held for this film. you have already donated over 450 thousand CZK. Save Elephants will use these funds for further activities to protect elephants and develop various methods of elephant conservation in Central Africa.
Podcast: The Ivory Smuggler Hunter
The first episode of the VAKOVAKO podcast was dedicated to the dramatic decline of the forest elephant in Central Africa, whose population has declined by 86% in 31 years and the species is critically endangered. Arthur from Save-Elephants describes poaching as one of the most profitable illegal businesses, costing the lives of over 20,000 elephants a year and fuelling the global ivory trade. The podcast also explains the irreplaceable role of elephants for the rainforest ecosystem and the growing conflict between humans and wildlife.
Other activities Save-Elephants
Hippos in Chad
In Chad, Save-Elephants developed projects aimed at harmonizing the coexistence of local communities with wild animals. Conflicts with crop-destroying hippos were solved with electric fences, and through joint goat breeding led by women, it was possible to link settled peasants and (semi-)nomadic pastoralists.
Activities took place in four communities along the Logone River, where no violent incidents occurred throughout the year and hippos and goats successfully reproduced.
Elephant Rescue
In April, at the request of the Congolese Ministry of Environment and the management of the Conkouati-Douli National Park, Save-Elephants was invited to the acute rescue of an adult male forest elephantinjured by a poacher's noose made of steel rope. Thanks to the quick mobilization of the team and the participation of Czech wildlife veterinarian Lukáš Pavlíček, the elephant was found, tranquilized and successfully freed from the trap. This was a unique rescue operation, probably the first of its kind in the world for a forest elephant.
Tsoulou
Save-Elephants continued to support conservation and worked to take over the care of the Tsoulou Reserve in Congo. In this biodiversity exceptionally valuable implemented activities aimed at preventing major threats such as poaching, overexploitation of forests and the spread of invasive species. In collaboration with local trackers, monitoring of elephants, hippos and great apes was carried out using field surveys and photo traps, and invasive vegetation was removed from unique karst rivers together with fishermen.
Thanks for the support of donors from the VAKOVAKO platform.
