Wild Wednesday's: Butterflies | Sustainable Farming
Hello Steemian Friends!
Hope you are all well and having a good Happy Hump Day! We have been busy today so far, Becca's workplace gave her the day off and Sam did not have to go into uni as he usually does on Wednesday's. So we have made the most of the day so far. It's a beautiful sunny hot day in Bangkok for a change, lately it has been raining a lot. So we have tried to do a lot of things outside but it does get very hot and humid.....ahh thinking about being on the beach right now to just be able to walk straight into the salty ocean water....... Keep dreaming guys!
Anyway, today is another Wild Wednesday's post, and I (Becca) would like to go back to last week's post about Butterflies, particularly the ones she spent time with in Cambodia.
Banteay Srey Butterfly Centre
I was working in Cambodia for a local NGO that focused on wildlife and helped with local communities and alternative sustainable livelihoods. I spent a lot of time out in the forest, particularly Phnom Kulen National Park, just outside Siem Reap. The NGO also works in partnership with a Butterfly Centre - Banteay Srey Butterfly Centre.
The Butterfly Centre is about 25 km north of Siem Reap and features a live display of Cambodian butterflies found in the area. The exhibit is a netted garden enclosure with thousands of free flying butterflies.
I know, you are thinking it's another tourist attraction in Siem Reap. The truth is, it is a tourist attraction, but they have a very interesting story and have an important role in wildlife conservation and local community development.
The Butterfly Centre has helped set up butterfly farms in small villages in and around the Phnom Kulen National Park. The Park is currently struggling with illegal activities such as poaching and logging, and a big amount of land within the park has been cleared, right under the noses of the Park Rangers. The forested areas have been cleared to give way to primarily cashew farming, which a lot of the local villagers take part in. Cashew farming is a seasonal crop, and tends to generate a good income for the villagers, hence you see the temptation.
The bad thing is that by clearing the trees in the forest, wildlife species such as the Silver Langurs (a primate), who live and spend much of their time in the tree canopy, cannot move and communicate once those trees are chopped down. Their natural way of moving around the canopy has been taken away from them due to the clearings. I'm sure there are many other species of wildlife that are also affected by the clearings. The Butterfly Centre works with the villages in the park, it provides them with a more sustainable alternative livelihood - Butterfly Farming.
What is Butterfly Farming?
Butterfly Farming is the breeding of pupae to sell to local butterfly exhibits or for export to zoos and live exhibitions all around the World. Butterfly farming requires intact forest, as opposed to cashew farming, and if farmers are receiving good income from a sustainable source it will make them more aware and provide an economic incentive to conserve these natural habitats in the forest.
The National Park is home to hundreds of species of butterflies all naturally from Cambodia. The Butterfly Centre provides all the training and materials and support for the butterfly farmers. The farmers can then work from home where they can also spend time with their children and families. Remember in last week's post I mentioned that each butterfly species has its own specific food plant, well this is something the farmers have to take into consideration when preparing for the butterfly farming, they have to make sure that they plant or have already planted the right food plants for the butterflies.
Once they have the farming process handled, they can start selling the pupae to the Butterfly Centre which pays per pupae. Each of these pupae are then either released into the Butterfly Centre's exhibition in Siem Reap or packaged and sent off overseas to zoos or other exhibits that have ordered for them. It is a lucrative business, as many countries outside of Asia don't have the same Butterfly species, but would like to show case them in their live exhibits. It is a good sustainable alternative income for the local villagers who would otherwise be clearing forests or getting involved in illegal activities which are detrimental to the Phnom Kulen National Park.
If you would like to read and find out more about the Banteay Srey Butterfly Centre please check out their page.
Stay Classy Steemians!
Wild Wednesday’s is a post written by the @travelling-two every Wednesday to inform their followers and readers about nature and conservation.
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Sounds like a great job and this project. Always great to see things like this exist 💯🐒
Thanks @vibeof100monkeys! Hope you are keeping well 😊 It was great to get involved in butterfly conservation and the knowledge Becca gained will always be greatly appreciated. We hope to get involved in more projects in the future!