Gibbon Rehabilitation Project

This project has been rescuing and rehabilitating white handed gibbons from the pet trade and tourism industry since 1992. Every year new baby gibbons are smuggled into the bars and onto the beaches in Phuket to entertain the tourists. Wiped out on the island 30 years ago, the illegal trade is now decimating wild populations throughout Thailand. Since 2002 the project has successfully re-established a small independent breeding wild population of reintroduced captive gibbons in Khao Phraw Thaew non-hunting area on Phuket.

The project is looking volunteers who are available for at least three weeks. Depending on the duration of your stay, your education and experience, you may participate in activities at the quarantine and rehabilitation site (i.e. food preparation, feeding, cage maintenance, enrichment/observation), the reintroduction site (i.e. forest feeding, mapping and trail maintenance, data collection, etc), at the education centre (environmental education and fundraising), and with other miscellaneous tasks (i.e. campaigning, office work, teaching English in the local primary school, etc).

Volunteers pay a 20,000 Thai Baht deposit (£400) and they get 75% of this back on the completion of the agreed volunteering period. The 5,000 Thai Baht fee (£100) includes accommodation but volunteers are responsible for their own food. There are no other fees involved but volunteers will obviously have to pay their travel to Thailand and make sure they have their vaccinations prior to working with the gibbons.

If you have any questions or want to apply please visit the VWT website and then contact host organisation directly. This project is listed on page four of volunteer pages.