Original Story Published by: Ryan Truscott, www.rfi.fr
Photo Source: AFP Pedro Pardo
(Above) São Tomé is home to at least 116 species of butterfly. Twenty-two species have been selected for possible breeding.
Conservationists on São Tomé, a tropical island that is home to a rich diversity of plants, birds and butterflies, have launched a project to help local farmers breed butterflies to boost incomes and incentivize the protection of the island’s forests.
Under a pilot project three farmers on the island, located around 200 kilometers off the coast of West Africa, will produce nearly 10,000 chrysalids per year for sale to collectors in Europe, said Julie Courret, BirdLife International's head of projects in the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe.
São Tomé alone is home to at least 116 species of butterfly. Some, like the rare Charaxes montieri, are found nowhere else on earth.
Twenty-two species of butterfly, including seven endemic species, have been selected for possible breeding. Their chrysalids will be exported to overseas collectors, who hold exhibitions of live insects in special enclosures.
Initially France will be the biggest market, said Courret.
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