Butterfly Farming to Help Save Rain Forest

Researchers at the University of Warwick's Plant Research arm Warwick HRI have received a £295,000 Darwin initiative grant to develop a butterfly farming industry in Guyana that will help support 5000 people in 16 communities and could help save the rain forest itself.

The University of Warwick team will work with the Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development in Guyana. The nearly one million acres of rain forest and the surrounding North Rupununi Wetlands are a rich source of exotic butterflies that are sought after by many western butterfly farms and other institutions that exhibit collections of live butterflies. Each individual butterfly pupa shipped to one of these customers can be worth between £2 and £5.

The creation of a sustainable butterfly farming business would help preserve the local rain forest in two ways. Firstly the local population will have a sustainable business that allows them generate an income thereby reducing the likelihood of activities that would involve forest clearance; secondly butterfly farming actually needs to conserve the rain forest because it is the butterflies' preferred habitat.

The research will be led by Dr. Doreen Winstanley and Neil Naish from Warwick HRI, the University of Warwick's Plant Research arm who already have experience with butterfly farming through their University spin off company - Warwick Insect Technologies Ltd. They will undertake a biodiversity survey of the butterfly community and their host plants within the Iwokrama Forest.
The survey will work with the indigenous communities within the forest and the surrounding North Rupununi District with the ultimate aim of enhancing the livelihoods of the 5000 individuals in the 16 communities through the sustainable development of a low-tech butterfly farming industry. The butterfly farming will be set up as a co-operative within the North Rupununi District of Guyana.

Source: University of Warwick