
Amber with young crocodile in their rescue centre
My name is Amber, and I am the Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator for the Lao Conservation Trust for Wildlife (LCTW), based in Laos, SE Asia. We work at the frontline of nature conservation and rehabilitation in one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots.
LCTW was founded in 2018, after taking over the old Lao Zoo site. It transitioned from being a place for showcasing exotic animals, to being a safe haven for native wildlife. We aim to release as many rescued animals into the wild as possible. We work closely with the Lao Government to provide training for their staff in order to facilitate rescues safely. We also provide sanctuary to animals who cannot be released. We run the only free hotline within Laos for people to report instances of wildlife crime, and have a dedicated member of staff on hand 24/7 to respond and arrange rescues. We are focused on working with all native species of Laos and currently house over 200 animals including bears, crocodiles, primates, binturong and various chelonians.

LCTW volunteers working to rescue wild animals
In 2023 we received news that we were being evicted from our original site by the Government. We had only 18 months to find, secure, build and move into a new site. Despite this being a shock which would drain our limited funds, we managed to come out of this on the other side. In July 2024 we completed the move to our new site. This came with the bonus of allowing us to design a new conservation centre from scratch. This allowed us to design the centre with the animals’ needs in mind. The new site is located on the edge of the Phou Khao Khouay National Park, which acts as an excellent location for soft-releases for our animals. Our new centre is like none-other – especially in this part of the world. Our primates are all housed in huge, completely natural enclosures of at least 80m x 80m, allowing them to adapt to the “wild” life before they are released, maximising their chances of survival in the wild. We have a large mixed species educational enclosure at the entrance of our site housing several none-releasable animals – this allows visitors to connect to the animals on a more emotional level. This enclosure allows gibbons to swing freely above visitors heads on a rope bridge, and travel down to be viewed at eye level with nothing but an artificial wetland in between. The wetland has been created to increase the natural biodiversity at the sight, as well as acting as a natural filter for our mixed species turtle enclosure. This enclosure houses critically endangered turtles who are now used as breeding specimens to restock the wild population with their offspring.

Young monkeys wandering in the rescue centre
We also recently received the results of genetic testing back to confirm that we have 75 pure Siamese crocodiles, which we believe is the largest captive population of this species in the world. These crocodiles originated from a crocodile farm so many of them were previously suspected to be hybrids and thus not viable for conservation purposes. This newly founded breeding group is vital for the species survival – with only around 70 thought to exist in the wild in Laos. The offspring of the captive crocodiles will be released to the wild when they are big enough. Whilst moving 75 adult crocodiles to a new site wasn’t the easiest task, it meant we could excavate all the nests this year and safely remove the eggs, which has never been possible before. We were lucky enough to have dozens of these eggs hatch in our hands, which truly was an incredible experience.
Whilst work is still very much in progress here at LCTW to complete building our new site (this probably won’t be complete for upwards of 2 years), the progress we have seen in such a short time is truly astounding. Despite having to focus on the move all year, we have still been able to breed and release dozens of critically endangered animals, and rescue over 22 species already this year (2024), most of which have been successfully released already. The move has taught us all a lot, and it has also provided excellent opportunities for studying our animals like never before. I have been trying to connect to organisations and researchers alike who might wish to collaborate with us to make the most of these incredible opportunities for research. So, if this sounds like something you’d be interested in, please do reach out. We also offer a volunteering program if you’d like to spend time helping care for our animals. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for our conservation centre, and the wildlife of Laos!