Saving the Rainforests (page 1 of 3) Read about: Butterfly Souls or How Butterfly's Were Created

Many would agree we are at a critical junction regarding the ecological health of the planet. There are many problems to solve and deforestation is perhaps the greatest. Each year an area of tropical forest equal to the size of England is destroyed.

In the third world, a large part of the difficulty in protecting forests has been lack of economic opportunities for rural people. Using the land is often the only way to make a living and clearing for subsistence farming is a major problem. Logging and cattle ranching, the most inefficient forms of farming, have been major reasons for the destruction of enormous amounts of the tropical rain forests. In the Amazon alone, 11.6 million hectares of rain forest have been cleared for ranching. There is however some good news and it comes in the form of a butterfly. Our symbol of the soul in mythology could become the symbol of the rain forest in reality.

In 1983, Joris Brinckerhoff and his wife Maria Sabido started Costa Rica's first butterfly farm called the Finca de Mariposa's. Early attempts at exporting pupae was a difficult venture as there was practically no market at the time and a Costa Rican tax of $ 2.00 levied on each pupa made it next to impossible. However, in the 1980's the tourist industry was beginning to boom in Costa Rica and Maria suggested they build a butterfly enclosure that tourists could visit. The business prospered and shortly afterward their wholesale export business, CRES (Costa Rican Entomological Supplies) did as well.

As butterfly houses in North America and Europe began to open up it wasn't too long before the main concern wasn't sales but how to attain enough butterflies to meet demand. In 1993 the company exported 50,000 specimens and by 2005 that number had risen to over 400,000 annually.

To maintain supply Brinckerhoff turned to some former employees who had opened up their own farms. He also found other people willing to learn about butterfly farming and helped them establish their own farms. He recruited from beyond his immediate area of La Guacima Alajuela so he could include a variety of species not native to his part of the country. Now his company contributes to the incomes of 100 families and buys pupae from 45 different suppliers throughout the country. More.....