The Gibbon Rehabilitation Project (GRP) was set up in 1992 by Mr Noppadol Preuksawan, who was then the Chief of the Royal Forest Department in Phuket. In 1994 the Wild Animal Rescue Foundation of Thailand (WARF) started to and continues to this day to support the project.
The Gibbon Rehabilitation site and the Education Centre are located in Khao Phra Thaeo National Park, at Bang Pae Waterfall in Phuket. The centre aims to protect gibbons and their habitat through rehabilitation and education. They take gibbons that have been kept as pets or used for taking street photos with tourists and take them through the slow, long process of releasing them back into the forest.
The gibbons are kept in large cages and there are information boards and volunteers on hand to help answer any questions you may have. The Centre is open daily from 9am to 4.30pm. There is no charge to enter the centre visitors, but as the centre is in Khao Phra Thaeo National Park, visitors will have to pay approximately 100-200 Baht each to enter the National Park. Towards the end of your visit pop into the small, gibbon related souvenir shop.
Any donations will be warmly received or maybe you will want to adopt and support a gibbon? If driving towards Phuket Airport on the main Airport Road (Thepkasattri Road, highway 402) turn right at the Heroines Monument Traffic Circle, sign posted Ban Pakhlok onto highway 4027 after about 9km you will see a sign for Bang Pae Waterfall and the Gibbon Rehabilitation Centre indicating a left turn, left left and after about a 4km drive you will reach the Khao Phra Thaeo National Park entrance.
