Wild Hope: The Butterfly Effect

To help stop the rise of deforestation in Zanzibar, one village has begun to farm a promising new crop: butterflies.

The archipelago of Zanzibar is renowned for its white sand beaches and tropical rainforest teeming with wildlife, but new development and widespread unemployment threaten the forest. Jozani-Chwaka Bay is Zanzibar’s only national park and a biodiversity haven, even as the surrounding forests are rapidly disappearing. Due to a lack of economic opportunity, local residents resort to cutting the forest for firewood and charcoal to support their families. Butterfly farming could offer an attractive alternative source of income that leaves the forest intact.

The Zanzibar Butterfly Centre recruits community members in a nearby village to catch butterflies outside of the park’s boundaries. Farmers target pregnant females, which lay up to a hundred eggs, allowing them to raise generations of butterflies without depleting the local population. By creating an incentive to leave the forest intact so butterflies can flourish, this practice effectively creating a buffer zone of habitat around Jozani. Just as important, the Centre offers residents a sustainable source of income and has brought electricity, water, and schools to the island.