New ideas: Butterflies on your wedding party!
If you decorated the hall of your wedding party with hundreds of exotic butterflies shipped in from an African rainforest, your friends might think you stylish, extravagant, even decadent.
But according to some Kenyan entrepreneurs, you could be helping save one of east Africa’s last remaining patches of natural forest, home to thousands of rare species.
Countries that are poor but rich in flora and fauna are increasingly seeking new ways to save wildlife from poverty and population pressure. Most rely on visits from dollar-bearing eco-tourists.
For the people of western Kenya’s Kakamega forest, though, there is more than one way to make money from your wilderness.
Besides tourist lodges and tree nurseries growing valuable species of timber and herbal medicines, they set up a farm which cultivates butterflies for export in 2001.
Buyers range from European scientists studying the behavior of forest-dwelling creepy crawlies to fashion designers and New York socialites wanting to spruce up their parties.
“We get orders from Americans wanting 400 butterflies to look pretty around their wedding reception,” says Roseline Shikami, a project founder. “I don’t know why butterflies. In Kenya, we use balloons.”
Shikami says scientists in Europe request species to study their diets, anatomy or mating habits. A fashion designer ordered some to match her dress at a function.
“Her outfit is black-and-white, so she wanted the butterfly to match the color of her dress,” she says, pointing to a black-and-white patterned insect flitting around an enclosure.
HUNGRY CATERPILLARS
Successful butterfly farming is tough. First, you have to catch at least two members’ of the species you want — different sexes. Then you have to persuade them to mate.
When the eggs hatch, you feed the caterpillars on their favorite forest leaves until they wrap themselves in a cocoon. The insects have to be exported in pupa form or they will not last the journey.
“Some of them hatch in just a few days, so you need to ship them out quick,” said butterfly farmer Benjamin Okalo.
Besides butterflies, Kakamega’s forest dwellers are planting and harvesting trees for commercial wood and medicines, including the red stinkwood, hailed as a cure for prostate cancer.
Other plants cure malaria and stomach ailments, locals say.
“We estimate 70 percent of these plants have medicinal properties, but only a fraction have been discovered,” John Atsango, who guides tourists for the Kenya Forest Department, told Reuters.
Atsango said a local pharmacy had started manufacturing herbal medicines using the plants for export markets.
“We are worried big drug companies will steal the secrets and patent them — I’m not allowed to tell you what half of these plants do,” he said.
Conservationists say the undiscovered medicinal properties of many plant species is one of the strongest arguments for saving biodiversity.
LIMITED MARKETS
Kakamega is the eastern most patch of what was once a vast rainforest stretching from the jungles of west Africa across the Congo into modern day Kenya, before much was chopped down.
Kenyan authorities are keen to halt the retreat of forests in a country mostly characterized by dry savanna and semi-desert. Only 36 of Kakamega’s 238 sq km (92 sq mile) is protected.
But some conservation groups are skeptical about whether schemes harvesting forest products besides timber can make a big difference.
“The problem is there just aren’t enough markets for butterfly pupae,” says Andrew Plumptre of the Ugandan branch of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
“It’s good for relations with the community, but I don’t think it raises a lot of money for conservation.”
Shikami admits the sums of money involved are small — pupae go for as little as $1 each — but she puts that down to unscrupulous middlemen.
“We need our own direct market,” she says, gently scraping a black caterpillar off her hand onto a broad leaf. “We could make a lot more money.”
The Kakamega Forest
The Kakamega National Reserve is a 36 km2 reserve, situated at the north end of the Kakamega Forest, in Western Province, Kenya, at an elevation of about 1560 m, along the northeastern edge of the Lake Victoria basin. Along its eastern edge rises the partially forested Nandi Escarpment which runs along the western edge of the Rift Valley. The Kakamega Forest is generally considered the eastern-most remnant of the lowland Congolean rainforest of Central Africa. Faunally and florally, Kakamega is dominated by central African lowland species, but due to its elevation (predominantly between 1500 m and 1600 m) and proximity to the formerly contiguous Nandi Forests it also contains highland elements and is thus unique. The forest boundary (including the reserves) encloses about 238 km2, of which less than half is still indigenous forest.
Throughout the forest are a series of grassy glades, ranging in size from about 1 to 50 ha, with a few larger clearings. The origins of the glades are uncertain. Some are certainly recent clearings, but others predate recent records. These may have originated from past human activity such as cattle grazing or may be the result of herbivory and movements by large mammals such as buffalo and elephants (both now extirpated from the region). The glades vary a great deal in structure, some being open grass and others having a considerable number of trees or shrubs. A number of streams and small creeks run through the reserve. The larger creeks are usually bordered by a few to tens of meters of forest on either side which divide the glades, while the smallest creeks flow through open grasslands, often forming small marshy patches.
No complete floristic studies have been done at Kakamega. The forest hosts about 160 tree and shrub species, many of Congolean lowland forest affinities, including a number of endemic plant species, mostly ferns and orchids. The flora of the open areas and glades has not been well studied. The glades often have small trees. Conspicuous flowering plants include flame lilies and Gladiolus. The forest edge is lined by dense thickets of Acanthus pubescens , a shrub with sharply spined, thistle-like leaves. Marshy patches are dominated by sedges and the grass Echinocloa pyramidalis .
The forest is best known for its diversity of birds: 367 species have been recorded. The avifauna is a mix of lowland and highland species, but lowland elements dominate. Nine of the species that occur at Kakamega are found nowhere else in Kenya, and two of its species, Turner’s Eremomela and Chapins’ Flycatcher, are threatened.
Insects are abundant and some are quite spectacular, such as giant Goliath beetles, pink and green African flower mantids, and numerous colorful butterflies. Particularly well represented groups are ants, Lepidopterans, Orthopterans, and beetles. Gastropod mollusks, millipedes and spiders are also common.
Kakamega is also known for its diverse snake fauna, with over 40 species, although they can be difficult to find. Lizards are more in evidence, with various skinks, chameleons, and agamas the most common. Amphibians are represented by a number of anuran species, the most common being Bufo and Phrynobatrachus toads and Ptychadena mascariensis frogs.
Except for the monkeys and squirrels large mammals are not much in evidence. Today only smaller antelope (primarily various duikers) and bush pig are present. Small carnivores, such as Egyptian mongooses, African civets, servals, genets, and palm civets are common; some larger carnivores, including jackals, spotted hyaenas, and leopards also occur there. Although rodents, insectivores, and bats are clearly present, they have been little studied at Kakamega.
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