Butterfly farming in Papua New Guinea

The southern highlands of Papua New Guinea contain lush rain forests and spectacular landscapes, but for all of its natural beauty, life in a picture postcard can be remarkably tough. While basic essentials such as food can be grown in the village gardens or found in the forests, in order to access modern medicines and technology you need cash. The temptation is always to exploit in some of the natural capital in the local forests, for example by allowing in logging companies. As with most of PNG, the land here belongs to the locals via traditional customary title. It is their land and their decision about how best to utilise the resources they own. The challenge is to find a way to obtain the cash they need in a way that will be sustainable into the future. In 1993 the ABC program A Question of Survival reported on an innovative and sustainable approach to this problem of cash – butterfly farming. Papua New Guinea has some of the largest and most beautiful butterflies in the world. These are highly prized by collectors and valuable on the export market. The principle of butterfly farming is simple. Encourage more butterflies by enriching their habitat with the plants they prefer, and protecting the caterpillars as they munch their way to the pupae stage. The process is sustainable, good for bush habitat protection and profitable for the growers. (c) Australian Broadcasting Corporation http://abc.net.au/science