Club Lunch Meeting - Bring The Elephant Home

Please be invited to our club lunch meeting on 25 November where we welcome guest speaker Dr. Antoinette van de Water, a Dutch conservationist who will speak about the research and development activities of the Bring The Elephant Home Foundation. During her talk, Antoinette will share how their community-driven approaches in Thailand, from fieldwork to science, are shaping new models of human–elephant coexistence.

In Thailand, the focus is on Kuiburi National Park, home to more than 300 wild elephants. Antoinette and her team collaborate with farmers and rangers on practical, nature-based solutions: studying elephant behavior, community engagement, planting elephant-friendly crops, and using beehive fences to reduce human-elephant conflicts. A flagship initiative is the Tom Yum Project, where farmers grow lemongrass, galangal, and chili peppers, crops elephants avoid, and turn them into sustainable, elephant-friendly products.

About the BTEH Foundation

Founded by Dr. Antoinette, the organization is a Dutch, Thai, and South African NGO, officially registered in Hua Hin and they have spent more than 20 years working in Asia and Africa to transform human–elephant conflict into coexistence.

Registration is required and if you register and then decide that you won’t be able to attend, be sure to delete your names from the registered list on our Club Runner website by 23 November. 

We need to inform the venue of the headcount in advance and non-Rotarian friends are welcome to attend as always.

We hope to see you there!

Lunch meeting: THB 550

Dress code: Smart casual, long trousers