2

Declaration of Originality

I hereby declare that the dissertation ‘Uptake and the Success of Insect Farming in Papua

New Guinea: Implications for Biodiversity Conservation’ is substantially my own unaided

work. All information derived from published literature and other sources is acknowledged

and referenced within the text. This work is being submitted for no other purpose other

than the Master of Philosophy examination and does not exceed 15,000 words in length.

Rob Small

Date of Submission: 27/8/04

3

AcknowledgementsI would like to thank the following institutions and organisations for their financial

assistance that enabled me to conduct this research:

The Royal Geographical Society

Rufford Small Grants for Conservation

DEFRA

Darwin College

Department of Geography, Cambridge University

I would like to thank the following individuals for all the help and support that I received

from them during the course of my work:

David Whittaker

Mike Hudson

Catherine and Stanley Aisi

Peter Clark

Tim Bayliss-Smith

Max Ketternacker

My parents and most of all Lizzie King

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Contents

DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY 2

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 3

LIST OF FIGURES 7

LIST OF TABLES 8

LIST OF MAPS 8

LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS 8

ACRONYMS 9

INTRODUCTION 10

CHAPTER 1 13

POST INDEPENDENT PAPUA NEW GUINEA 13

Colonial History 13

Economic Development 16

Population Growth and Urbanisation 18

Environment and Development 20

Conclusion 21

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CHAPTER 2 24

INTERNATIONAL AND PAPUA NEW GUINEAN CONSERVATION 24

History of Conservation Thought 24

Integrating Conservation and Development 26

Sustainable Use of Wild Populations 29

Papua New Guinean Conservation 32

Sustainable Use Projects in Papua New Guinea 33

CHAPTER 3 35

BUTTERFLY COLLECTION AND TRADE IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA 35

The Origins of Butterfly Collecting 35

Insect Trade in Papua New Guinea 39

Development of the Insect Farming and Trading Agency 41

CHAPTER 4 51

UPTAKE AND LONGEVITY OF INSECT FARMING AND COLLECTION 51

Investigating the Success of Insect Farming Projects 51

Methods 52

Results 53Location of Insect Farmers and Collectors 53Provincial Longevity of Collecting and Farming 53Total Farmer and Collector Income 53Annual Provincial Earnings 54Average Provincial Income 54Patterns of Provincial Income 54Range of Individual Income 55Number of Insect Farmers and Collectors 55Duration of Insect Farmers and Collectors 55Summary of results 55

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Discussion 56

CHAPTER 5 67

CASE STUDIES OF THE BRANDS OF COLLECTORS AND FARMERS 67

Case Study 1 – Ken Kube 67

Case Study 2 - Pine Lodge Hotel and the Illegal Trade 71

Case Study 3 – Farming Goliath in Gumi Village 74

Case Study 4 – Wau Butterfly Farmers 77

CONCLUSION 83

REFERENCES 87

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List of FiguresFigure 1 The Process of Butterfly Farming ..................................................................................................49

Figure 2 The Number of Provinces with Individuals Collecting and Farming Insects (1995-2002)................61

Figure 3 Total Income for Papua New Guinean Insect Farmers and Collectors, 1995 – 2002 .........................62

Figure 4 The Income of Insect Farmers and Collectors by Province, 1995 – 2002 .........................................62

Figure 5 Income for Insect Farmers and Collectors in National Capital District, 1995-2002 .........................63

Figure 6 Income for Insect Farmers and Collectors in New Ireland Province, 1995-2002 .............................63

Figure 7 Income for Insect Farmers and Collectors in Western Province, 1995-2002 ...................................63

Figure 8 Income for Insect Farmers and Collectors in Central Province, 1995-2002.....................................63

Figure 9 Income for Insect Farmers and Collectors in Sandaun Province, 1995-2002...................................64

Figure 10 Income for Insect Farmers and Collectors in Gulf Province, 1995-2002........................................64

Figure 11 Income for Insect Farmers and Collectors in East New Britain Province, 1995-2002 ....................64

Figure 12 Income for Insect Farmers and Collectors in Southern Highlands Province 1995-2002.................64

Figure 13 Income for Insect Farmers and Collectors in West New Britain Province, 1995-2002 ...................64

Figure 14 Income for Insect Farmers and Collectors in Manus Province, 1995-2002 ...................................64

Figure 15 Income for Insect Farmers and Collectors in Madang Province, 1995-2002 .................................64

Figure 16 Income for Insect Farmers and Collectors in Western Highlands Province, 1995-2002 .................64

Figure 17 Income for Insect Farmers and Collectors in Milne Bay Province, 1995-2002 ..............................65

Figure 18 Income for Insect Farmers and Collectors in Northern Province, 1995-2002 ................................65

Figure 19 Income for Insect Farmers and Collectors in East Sepik Province, 1995-2002 ..............................65

Figure 20 Income for Insect Farmers and Collectors in Eastern Highlands Province, 1995-2002 ..................65

Figure 21 Income for Insect Farmers and Collectors in Simbu Province, 1995-2002 ....................................65

Figure 22 Income for Insect Farmers and Collectors in North Solomons Province, 1995-2002......................65

Figure 23 Income for Insect Farmers and Collectors in Morobe Province, 1995-2002 ..................................65

Figure 24 The Range of Insect Farmer and Collector Incomes in 2002 for Papua New Guinea .......................66

Figure 25 The Number of Individuals Farming and Collecting between 1995 and 2002.................................66

Figure 26 The longevity of Insect Farmers and Collectors............................................................................66

Figure 27 Ken Kube’s Butterfly Collecting Income, 1996-2002 ...................................................................81

Figure 28 Gumi Village Income from the Farming of O. goliath ....................................................................81

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List of TablesTable 1 Average per Annum Income per Province for Insect Farming and Collecting, 1995-2002..................63

List of MapsMap 1 Papua New Guinea...........................................................................................................................12Map 2 Areas of Known Forestry Potential in Papua New Guinea .................................................................23Map 3 Sites of Mineral Exploitation in Papua New Guinea...........................................................................23Map 4 Insect Farming and Collecting Locations, 1995.................................................................................60Map 5 Insect Farming and Collecting Locations, 1998.................................................................................60Map 6 Insect Farming and Collecting Locations, 2001.................................................................................61

List of PhotographsPhotograph 1 Typical Papua New Guinean Marketplace..............................................................................22Photograph 2 Woman and Child on way to Market .....................................................................................22Photograph 3 Village Based Coffee Production............................................................................................22Photograph 4 Male Goliath Birdwing Butterfly (Ornithoptera goliath).........................................................46Photograph 5 A Woman with her Pet Doria’s Tree-kangaroo (Dendrolagus dorianus)..................................47Photograph 6 Northern Cassowary (Casucrius unappendiculatus) ...............................................................47Photograph 7 Long-Beaked Echidna (Zaglossus bruijnii) ............................................................................47Photograph 8 Hercules Moth (Coscinocera Hercules)...................................................................................48Photograph 9 The Birdwing Butterfly Troides oblongomaculatus ................................................................48Photograph 10 An Assortment of Beetles in the Process of Being Sorted at IFTA................................... .......50Photograph 11 The World’s Largest Grasshopper, Siliquofera grandis..........................................................50Photograph 12 Ken Kube ............................................................................................................................80Photograph 13 Ken Kube Collecting in the PNG Forest Products Plantation .................................................80Photograph 14 Ken Kube’s Method for Catching the Butterfly Papilio ulysees .............................................80Photograph 15 Bob Kuri .............................................................................................................................82Photograph 16 Gumi Butterfly Farmers – Koni Gedisa, Hans Hiob and Gedisa Eauko ....................................82Photograph 17 Wau Butterfly Farmer – Robert Banabas .............................................................................82

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Acronyms

CBD – Convention on Biological Diversity

CITES – Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species

DEC – Department of Environment and Conservation

IFTA – Insect Farming and Trading Agency

ICDP – Integrated Conservation and Development Project

IUCN – The World Conservation Union

NIF – National Insect Farming

OISCA – Organisation for Industrial, Spiritual and Cultural Advancement InternationalPNG – Papua New Guinea

UN – United Nations

UNDP – United Nations Development Programme

UNEP – United Nations Environment Programme

VSO – Voluntary Services Overseas

WEI – Wau Ecology Institute

WWF – World Wide Fund for Nature

WCS – World Conservation Strategy

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IntroductionThe collection of butterflies and insects from Papua New Guinea has evolved over the past

century. The major collections of insects began when the Hon. Walter Rothschild first

commissioned Alfred Stanley Meek to collect for him in what was then a land almost

completely unknown to the west. Today Papua New Guineans engage in insect collecting

and farming in order to provide an income by selling butterflies and other insects to

organisations such as the Insect Farming and Trading Agency (IFTA).

This income generating activity has received international acclaim for achieving both a

sustainable income for the rural poor of Papua New Guinea, who are severely limited in

opportunities to earn a cash income, and an incentive for the conservation of natural

resources.

The paper will examine the broad development context in which Insect Collecting and

Farming is conducted, the history and development of contemporary conservation thought

(both internationally and within Papua New Guinea) and in what way insect farming and

collecting fits into this framework, as well as the manner in which insect farming and

collecting developed in Papua New Guinea. Subsequently, through an analysis of IFTA’s

purchasing records (1995 to 2002) and four case studies, the manner of the uptake,

longevity and success of IFTA as well as the process insect farming and trading shall be

established.

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Due to the time and logistical constraints it has only been possible to study one

insect-purchasing organisation within Papua New Guinea. IFTA was chosen as it is the

largest and longest running organisation of its kind. The paper will focus on providing a

broad contextual introduction to the research area, and an in depth analysis of IFTA’s

position within the current development framework in Papua New Guinea, rather than

attempting a complete description of the uptake and longevity of all collectors and farmers

within the country.

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Chapter 1Post Independent Papua New Guinea

Colonial HistoryThe island of New Guinea is believed to have been populated for the past 50000 years with

the islands first settlers coming from South East Asia. The first Europeans to discover this

vast island were the Portuguese. In 1526 it was named Ilhas dos Papuas (Island of the

Fuzzy Haired People) by Jorge de Meneses. Subsequently another Portuguese named the

island New Guinea in 1545 as he thought that the coastline was reminiscent of Equatorial

Guinea in West Africa. These dates mark the first official recognition of the island by the

West but products originating from New Guinea had been items of trade for several

hundred years before the Portuguese discovery. The main items of trade were plumes from

the island’s remarkable Birds of Paradise. Plumes have been found as far as Persia dating

back to the 16th century. The trade in plumes occurred alongside an increasing demand for

spices (mace, cinnamon and nutmeg) that originated from the Moluccan Islands to the west

of mainland New Guinea. The European market for these spices led to the establishment of

a Dutch colony on the Moluccan Islands. Initial trips to mainland New Guinea from this

colony revealed no evidence of spices to be found and the interest of the colonial powers

extending their influence onto the mainland subsided. However, although the Dutch had no

economic interest in mainland New Guinea at that time they did annex the island up to the

140 parallel. This territory was administrated by the Sultans from the Moluccan Islands.

During the 18th century several expeditions were made by the French and British to chart

the coast of New Guinea and to extend colonial influence over this region. Yet it wasn’t

until the late 19th century that the Eastern half of the island was annexed by colonial

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powers. On 3 November 1884 the northeast section of the island of New Guinea was

declared a German protectorate and on the 6th November the southeast section of the island

was declared a British protectorate (Moore, 1989). The British interest in the south of the

island was mainly strategic; they saw little economic advantage to be gained from their

colonial possession. The Germans on the other hand saw the colony of New Guinea as an

economic venture and hoped to establish profitable trading companies and produce cash

crops through the exploitation of a cheap supply of local labour. On the outbreak of WWI

the Australian Army took control of German New Guinea and from 1921 to 1942 it was

known as the Mandated Territory of New Guinea. It was during this period that the first

explorations of the interior of New Guinea took place. The explorations were driven by

gold prospectors who had crossed the Bulolo River in 1922 and found gold on the edge of

the eastern highlands (Waiko, 1993). Further exploration led, in 1926, to a large find of

gold at Eddie Creek which lies close to Wau and Bulolo in the Owen Stanley Ranges.

Dredges that were flown in piece by piece by gold mining companies can still be seen

scattered along the roadside from Wau to Bulolo and indeed gold prospecting continues

there today. It is now on a much smaller scale than in the heyday of the 1930s when the

airstrip at Wau was the busiest in the world and received more airfreight than the whole of

Australia. Michael Leahy established himself as a gold prospector in Eddie Creek and in

the 1930s he went on to mount several prospecting expeditions during which he and his

brothers were some of the first westerners to travel to the interior of New Guinea. New

Guinea’s interior was not, after all, an uninhabited jumble of cloud-shrouded mountain

ranges but the most thickly populated and fertile area in New Guinea and, as we now know,

supports in an eternal spring climate the most colourful and decorative primitives in the

world (Leahy, 1991).

15

During WWII there was conflict both on mainland New Guinea and on the neighbouring

island of New Britain. The conflict increased the awareness of the Australian public to New

Guinea, indeed more Australian troops died there during the war than had previously set

foot on the island (Waiko, 1993). Australia regained control of the whole of the eastern half

of the island in 1945 after partial occupation by Japanese troops. In 1945 the Australian

government passed the Papua New Guinea provisional act stating that Papua and New

Guinea were to be administered as a single territory (Waiko, 1993). During the period

following World War II and until 1975 Papua New Guinea was once again administered by

Australia. In 1947, following the Papua New Guinea act the, territories of Papua and New

Guinea were administered as the single territory of Papua New Guinea. During the period

1945 to 1960 Australia had attempted to isolate Papua New Guinea from the rest of the

world, owing to fears of neighbouring Indonesia’s ambitions for New Guinea and for the

potential economic benefits that PNG’s mineral wealth might have to offer. From 1960

Australia came under increasing pressure from the UN and the World Bank to relinquish

control of the territory from the United Nations and the World Bank. Decision-making

power was gradually devolved to Port Moresby [from Canberra], and greater emphasis was

given to indigenous participation in the implementation of policy (Wakai, 1993). The

constitutional development leading towards eventual Self-Governance on 1 December 1973

and Independence on 16 September 1975 was a process in which Papua New Guineans

contributed significantly to the building of their young nation (Deklin, 1989). However,

independence for PNG on 16 September 1975 was not the result of national consensus. The

majority of Papua New Guineans were either not concerned, against, or not committed.

Instead, the political change was effected by was the doing of a small group of people led

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by the Pangu Party and its sympathisers in the House of Assembly. Many people were not

sure of what independence would bring for them and the country (Pokawin in Kavanamar

et al., 2003).

Economic DevelopmentThe economy of Papua New Guinea is dominated by the agricultural and mining sectors.

With circa 80% of the population being rural subsistence farmers the informal agricultural

sector is important for a high proportion of Papua New Guineans. Rapid monetisation of

the economy has seen the transition to semi-subsistence agriculture where rural household

production is not only consumed but surplus marketed (Gumoi, 2003) (see photographs 1, 2

and 3. The average earnings for participants in the informal sector is K275 (Sowei et al.,

2003). The agriculture sector contributes around a quarter of total output in Papua New

Guinea, employs about two-thirds of the work force and contributes more than 10% of

export earnings (Connell, 1997). In 1999 the export of coffee, cocoa, copra and palm oil

earned K930.l3 million.

Since the inception of an independent Papua New Guinea the country’s economy has

grown to be dependant on mineral production and export. Until 1989 the Bougainville

copper mine was the single most important component of the economy. The mine, which

came into production in the same month of 1972 that the first national government was

formed, generated substantial income for its owners and, through taxation, for the

government (Connell, 1997). The production of copper at the mine ceased abruptly due to

the “Bougainville crisis” which saw a civil uprising occur in the island. Civil unrest

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initially began due to the impact that the mine was having on local villages, concerning

both the environmental damage and compensation claims. The largest mines that are still in

production are OK Tedi, Porgera and Lihir. In 1999 earnings from oil, gold and copper

amounted to K2301.

The large scale mining operations in Papua New Guinea have created localised areas of

relatively high income for Papua New Guineans (see Maps 2 and 3). The mines create

employment opportunities for people within the locale of the mine site and for those that

are able to migrate to it. As part of landowner compensation packages mining companies

such as BHP at Ok Tedi paid for electricity, roads and High School fees. This process of

uneven development, that has occurred throughout PNG over the past thirty years,

continues today. Mining and logging operations provide significant localised

improvements to living conditions such as electricity, roads and health clinics. However,

these amenities are only maintained for the duration of the operation, and rapidly fall into

disrepair once it has ceased. This type of infrastructure provision, is therefore, short-term

and unsustainable, yet it still helps to foster a feeling of prosperity within communities..

Rural people are willing to accept environmentally damaging practices such as

unmonitored logging due to these benefits and a knowledge that the government is too

weak to provide them with adequate services.

Papua New Guinea’s immature transport network and obstructive topography intensify the

country’s developing spatial inequalities (Clarke, 1980).While working in the relatively

remote North Coast mountain range of Papua New Guinea on an Integrated Conservation

and Development project the author experienced first hand the desire for communities to

have their share of ‘development’. Communities in this area were aware of the short-term

18

benefits that could accrue from mining and forestry projects. They were keen to see the

provision of roads and other services regardless of whether the long-term outcome might

do more harm than good.

When compared to South East Asian countries, PNG’s overall economic growth

performance and development between 1976 and 1999 has been relatively erratic, sluggish

and falls short of its potential (Gumoi, 2003).

Population Growth and UrbanisationSince independence Papua New Guinea has witnessed a high level of population growth,

which now lies roughly at 2.3%, and although a large percentage of the population remains

in rural areas, urban centres are continuing to expand. The significant movement of people

within PNG has occurred since Papua New Guineans first began to work in coastal

plantations. Today workers volunteer, but previously for the most part they were pressed

into labour (Sillitoe, 2000).

An example of displaced populations is in Bulolo in Morobe province. Workers were

brought to the area in the 1950s, from the Sepik, in order to work on forestry plantations.

Yet now the Bulolo forestry sector is in decline and many of the immigrants descendents

are unable to find work. The situation of these people in Bulolo contradicts the common

held romantic notion that everybody in Papua New Guinea has land and both the means to

grow food and hunt for meat (i.e. that even if people aren’t cash rich they are at least land

rich). This is increasingly not the case. People in rural areas feel that they aren’t receiving

19

the ‘development’ that they should be, leading to frustration with their lot and a desire to

leave their land to seek jobs in urban areas.

There has been a belief within rural communities since the 1950s that the towns of Papua

New Guinea are places where one could earn cash and, with that cash, gain the desirable

products of a modernising economy (Skeldon, 1978). This is opposed to the situation that

was and still is found in isolated rural areas where both cash and the trappings of modernity

are lacking. However, most of the migrants to urban areas have been unable to cash in on

the modern economy that is emerging in Papua New Guinea.

With Papua New Guinea in the middle of an economic downturn job prospects in the

country’s urban centres are low. Throughout there is a very low level of confidence in the

integrity of the government and many of the rural population are disheartened with what

they perceive as many years of neglect and empty promises by a succession of weak and

corrupt governments.

A direct consequence of urban immigration, poverty and deprivation has been the

development of a high crime rate in urban areas. Crime is a major problem within centres

such as Mt. Hagen, Wewak, Lae and Port Moresby. Fear and a siege mentality have taken

over many people and not only within the expatriate community. The 1980s saw the

beginning of high barbed wire fences, guard dogs and armed guards - features that are now

widespread throughout Papua New Guinea (Harris, 1988). Rascal is the Pidgin English

word for any type of criminal within Papua New Guinea and is in common usage. The rise

of rascalism has been ineffectually tackled by an under trained and undermanned police

20

force. Highlighting the weaknesses of the police force is the presence of private security

firms on almost every street corner, in what is essentially a privatisation of the police.

Rascal gangs are exploiting the opportunity for criminal activity in this climate. However,

problems with law and order situation however can easily be over exaggerated through a

process of disseminated rumours and irresponsible media, especially within Australia.

Fragmentation and tension between landowners and migrants in the face of land shortages,

growing urban unemployment, bureaucratic ineptitude and political corruption – hastening

privatisation – have all contributed to disarray and division (Connell, 1997). Also within

urban centres the divide between the have and have nots is getting wider, “the rich,

including politicians, dine in restaurants and drive the latest model cars with tinted glass

while the poor try to make ends meet by selling empty bottles and betel nut (NRI, 1992).

Environment and DevelopmentForward thinking during the development of the Constitution in the early 1970s led to the

fourth goal of the National Goals and Directive Principles that was “for Papua New

Guinea’s natural resources and environment to be conserved and used for the collective

benefit for us all, and be replenished for the benefit of future generations” (Kwa, 2003).

Skilfully interwoven, the National Goals and Directives Principles…[in 1974] form[ed] a

powerful statement of the type of society our country aspires to and a fine antecedent

statement on sustainable development…the exhilaration of those early days passed some

time ago (Hill, 1993).

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Due to PNG’s dependence on natural resources for its economy it has been somewhat

difficult for successive governments to adhere to the goal of sustainable development. After

twenty years of independence, an appraisal was made of the ‘environmental friendliness’

impact of current development practices in Papua New Guinea. The report noted that “In

some areas PNG’s natural resources have been ruthlessly destroyed by largely foreign

companies which have not contributed sufficiently to PNG’s prosperity…They have been

permitted to do so by a corrupt and selfish political leadership which has facilitated such

short term plundering of PNG’s natural resource heritage (Planning the New Century

Committee, 1998).

ConclusionPapua New Guinea finds itself today with dependence on natural resource exploitation,

inequitable distribution of wealth and increasing urban populations with associated crime

and deprivation. Also its position on the UNDP Human Development Index has declined

over the past decade from 126 to a current position of 133 out of 179 countries (UNDP,

1993 & 2003).

This brief review of the history of development within PNG indicates the difficult and

perhaps impossible situation facing grassroots income generation projects, such as the

Insect Farming and Trading Agency.

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Chapter 2

International and Papua New Guinean Conservation

History of Conservation ThoughtIn the hundred and twenty year period since the formation of the world’s first national park

in Yellowstone to the present day there has been an enormous upswell in general public

concern for nature. In the global north and increasingly in the global south there has been a

change in conception of nature from something that should be dominated by man to a

construct that, increasingly, is to be nurtured.

Poll data shows that the environment is an urgent and growing issue among global south

mass publics, who are critical of government passivity and corporate corruption and are

mobilising themselves in thousands of local movements. Unlike in the north, southern

greens are not effectively organised as national parties but form networks of grass roots

environmental groups led by elites and thus have direct access to decision makers in

leading sectors. Although southern green discourse is not highly developed in terms of

ideological of theoretical consistency it has the advantage of substituting the apocalyptic

quasi-religious style of its northern counterpart for a scientific discourse that is easier for

elites to swallow (Peritore, 1999). Whatever the cause behind this general increase in

environmentalist thought, the attending shift in public opinion and subsequent impacts on

policy formation will be an important contributing factor to conservation practice in the

future.

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By the 19th century ideas about nature, whether as an economic resource that needed

conserving and exploiting, or as a precious reservoir of unchanged wilderness, were an

important element in colonial ideology, at both home and abroad (Adams & Mulligan,

2003). Initially in the United Kingdom and throughout the British Empire the conservation

arena was dominated by those of an aristocratic background driven to conserve nature due

to their concerns about the over exploitation of wildlife and the availability of animals for

big game hunting. These concerns and motivations crystallised in the formation of the

Society for the Protection of the Fauna of the Empire (SPFE) in 1903. The concerns of this

group were not only based on utilitarian principles but were also driven by the

romanticisation of nature. The society had, due to the influence of its membership, an

ability to lobby government and assisted with the “protectionist” agenda.

The central strategy that arose from this environmental concern was the creation of

reserves, particularly for forests, for example in the West Indies (eighteenth century), India

and the South African Cape (nineteenth century) (Adams & Hulme, 2001). The formation

of National parks at beginning of the 20th century led on from the creation of these

reserves, and effected a realisation of the core principles behind the conservation

movement during this period. A shift in the idea of what nature was meant to be had

occurred, and a concept of retaining a natural wilderness came to the fore. The idea of

wilderness as somewhere yet to be industrialised or otherwise utilised by man was

beginning to recede. The concept of a ‘pristine nature’ to be conserved from the ravages of

man was defined. Motivations were driven by the principle of the stewardship, with

connotations of the separation of “civilised” man from nature.

26

The principles of this protectionist conservation continued through the twentieth century.

Following the end of World War Two, increasingly formal regimes of conservation

administration were established (Adams & Hulme, 2001). People were officially prohibited

from living inside Serengeti and all future park boundaries in 1959, setting the template for

conservation programmes to come (Levine, 2002). Policy was often based on a coercive

form of protectionism that ignored the needs of the local people (Metcalfe, 1995 cited in

Hackel, 1999). Common elements of protectionism included hunting restrictions, protected

species designations and game reserve establishment (usually excluding people from

protected areas) (Carruthers, 1993 cited in Hackel, 1999).

Integrating Conservation and DevelopmentThe strategy of the formation of protected areas continues to the present day but from the

1970s onwards there was a growing realisation that protectionism alone would not achieve

the goal of the conservation of nature. These sentiments came both from conservation

biology and the social sciences. In 1980 the IUCN, along with the UNEP and WWF,

produced the World Conservation Strategy (WCS). The WCS was intended to show ‘how

conservation can contribute to the development objectives of governments, industry and

commerce, organised labour and professions’, as well as being the first time that

development was suggested ‘as a major means of achieving conservation, instead of being

viewed as an obstruction to it’ (Allen, 1980 cited in Adams, 1990). Increased levels of

poaching and encroachment onto protected areas during the 1980s exposed weakness in the

premise of the ‘fences and fines’ approach to conservation. In the 1980s writers from a

variety of social science disciplines began to heavily criticise the implementation of

27

national park policies for their disregard of local property claims and human rights

(Neuman, 1998).

Publications such as Our Common Future (Brundtland, 1987), that presented the concept

that conservation and development could now work together, afforded new perceptions that

were realised in the strategy of community conservation. It appeared that simply through

linking livelihoods with conservation, previous thoughts of the complete incompatibility

between the conservation of natural resources and human development could be overcome.

Thus, with a general acceptance that a solely protectionist method was a failure, these new

strategies were developed in the mid-1980s. The ‘new conservation’ aimed to achieve the

goal of conservation with the involvement of local communities. This was because it was

surmised that without the support of people within the locale of the conservation activity,

the activity itself would be doomed to fail. There was a realisation that the gap that had

been created between man and nature needed to be bridged.

Community conservation projects came under several titles including Integrated

Conservation and Development Projects (ICDPs), Community Based Natural Resource

Management (CBNRM) and Community Based Conservation. This style of strategy,

termed ‘community conservation’ had the premise of linking a ‘community’ ‘to

biodiversity’. However, ‘although an alluring idea to policy makers, community

conservation is no panacea, and can be problematic in implementation’

(Adams & Hulme, 2001). Integrated Conservation and Development Projects (ICDPs) had

the aim of creating the ability for populations within or near to an area of conservation

interest to develop economically and socially without impinging on the goals of

28

biodiversity conservation. The key feature of the linked incentive strategy involves

developing dependant relationships between the biodiversity and the surrounding people

(Salafsky & Wollenberg, 2000). Community conservation was taken up as the perfect

solution to the problem of biodiversity conservation but in the years since the creation of

the first ICDP in 1985 the strategy has received a lot of criticism from those both in the

biological and social sciences. Many of the projects that started with such promise have

been deemed failures, although there have some exceptions to this. Mogelgaard (2003)

gives examples of both successes and failures of ICDPs; the Annapurna Conservation Area,

Nepal, the Amboro National Park, Bolivia and the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda

have all been deemed successes whereas the Monarch Butterfly Overwintering Reserves,

Mexico and the Lak ICDP, Papua New Guinea are all regarded as failures.

The failures that have occurred with ‘new conservation’ do not mean that this framework

for conservation should be abandoned. Rather than treating past projects as abject failures

planning and implementation for future projects needs to absorb lessons that have been

learned. ICDPs need longer time frames, and should emphasise adaptive management

rather than detailed blueprint planning. There is a need to focus on the development of sets

of institutions that are effectively linked and that can exercise checks and balances over

each other. Finally community-private business partnerships must be strengthened so that

higher value forms of wildlife utilisation can be developed and benefits shared more

equitably with local residents (Hulme and Murphree, 2001).

29

Sustainable Use of Wild PopulationsAlongside attempts to reconcile the goals of conservation and development in recent years

there has been a growing acceptance of the use of the market in conservation whether it be

through the sustainable production of wildlife or the use of eco-tourism in funding

conservation projects. If species and habitats are to be conserved they must not be protected

from market forces as that will place them in the hands of an inefficient state causing them

to degrade as rent-seeking public officials take bribes from poachers and timber companies.

Rather they must be fully exposed to a market where their uniqueness and scarcity will lead

to high economic values being placed upon them so that the likelihood of conservation is

greatly enhanced (Hulme & Murphree, 1999). Levine (2002) cites a statement made by

President Nyerere of Tanganyika: “I personally am not interested in animals. I do not want

to spend my holidays watching crocodiles. Nevertheless, I am entirely in favour of their

survival. I believe that after diamonds and sisal, wild animals will provide Tanganyika with

its greatest source of income. Thousands of Americans and Europeans have the strange

urge to see these animals.”

Throughout the history of mankind, harvesting of wild species has been a vital part of

human survival. The direct use of wild living resources still remains an imperative choice

for many people (Hutton & Leader-Williams, 2003). Although many industrialised

countries have come to have less dependence on the use of wild animal populations these

countries still have demands on wildlife. Use of wild species remains an important need

and choice for many rural livelihoods (Sanderson & Prendergast, 2002 cited in Hutton &

30

Leader-Williams, 2003). Nearly 40% of a sample of non-agricultural and non-industrialised

societies heavily depend on fishing, c. 33% depend on gathering, and 28% depend on the

hunting of terrestrial resources (Ingold et al., 1988).

It has been recognised that the over exploitative use of wild species in the past has been a

major driver for human caused extinctions. Over hunting was the first factor in Diamond’s

(1987) ‘chains of extinction’. A famous example is the over hunting of the Moa to

extinction in New Zealand, ‘It was long argued whether Moas died out before or after the

Maori colonisation of New Zealand around 1000AD… The argument has now been settled,

because bones of almost all Moa species have been found in close association with humans.

Radiocarbon dates show that the Moas became extinct within about 500 years of human

arrival’ (Diamond, 1987).

Article 2 of the CBD (cited in Hutton & Leader-Williams, 2003) defines sustainable use as

“the use of components of biological diversity in a way and at a rate that does not lead to

the long-term decline of biological diversity, thereby maintaining its potential to meet the

needs and aspirations of present and future generations”. Although this definition of

sustainable use came at the end of the 20th century it can be seen that the realisation of the

need for conservation of populations of species has been apparent for a long period. There

is a need for the conservation of wild stocks whether it is purely for economic gain, or

feelings of moral obligation. However, harvested wild animal populations continue to

decline even with this understanding alongside scientific and administrative input. The

history of management of natural resources has shown little evidence of sustainability

(Ludwig, 1993 cited in Ludwig, 2001).

31

Conservation in the context of exploitation clearly means different things to different

people. Some wish to preserve their ability to profit from animal ‘resources’, with little

concern about long term declines in populations or impacts on ecosystems. Others are more

interested in minimising risks of extinctions or targeted species and minimising impacts on

ecosystem function (Reynolds et al., 2001).

There is increasing evidence that, particularly where habitat loss is a critical threat to

species, sustainable use may be the chief mechanism through which conservation is

achieved (Hutton & Dickson, 2001). Because the use of wild living resources remains an

essential livelihood strategy for many, use that is biologically sustainable, with the

potential to provide incentives for conservation, seems a clear goal for which to strive

(Hutton & Leader-Williams, 2003).

The logic behind this proposition is that revenues generated by the commercial

consumptive use of wild species will provide economic incentives for sound management

of the harvested populations (Freese, 1997). This relatively new approach by the

conservation community has been developed due to the realisation that protected areas

cannot be depended on fully in the quest for the conservation of biodiversity. This approach

has been implemented in many countries worldwide e.g. the CAMPFIRE project in

Zimbabwe which “returns the right of rural communities to manage and use wildlife to

their own benefit” (Hutton & Dickson, 2001).

32

Papua New Guinean ConservationThe practice of sustainable use has manifested itself in the Papua New Guinean Department

of Environment and Conservation since the late 1970s. The government’s implementation

of sustainable use projects was one facet of the suite of conservation strategies that were

initiated just after Papua New Guinea’s independence. It was recognised by policy makers

that there was a need for a flexible conservation strategy in a country with a mostly rural

population and a subsistent economy dependant on forest resources such as timber and

animal products, for day-to-day survival. “In Papua New Guinea… at the present time the

protection of natural life-support systems such as the establishment of Wildlife

Management Areas will satisfy the present needs for certain areas of the country, however,

there will be such a time in the future that intensive management is particularly important

when we are facing the rapid disappearance of natural wildlife habitats. At the extreme the

approach to such intensive management is to set up self-sustaining “wildlife breeding

farms” for certain important wildlife species without depending on supplies from wild

populations.” (Liem et al. 1976)

The Department of Wildlife policy and projects were guided by 8 principles that stemmed

from the inception of long-term planning of wildlife conservation and management in

Papua New Guinea in 1968 (Parker, 1978). The principles were as follows:

• Wise and controlled utilisation of wildlife, aimed at maintaining traditional usage

and not depleting wild populations

33

• Planning large-scale developments in order to minimise their impact on wildlife

resources and habitat

• Development and implementation of legislation based on sound biological grounds,

enabling the conservation of wildlife on traditionally owned land with the full

cooperation of land owners

• Development of management and husbandry techniques for wildlife suitable for

village use

• Development of overseas and internal markets for wildlife and wildlife products

• Establishment of Wildlife Management Areas in close cooperation with traditional

landowners

• Assessment of wildlife resources and traditional utilisation, to make sure that any

changes which may occur do not have a bad effect on them

• Maximising the benefits from the use of wildlife to the Papua New Guineans who

own the wildlife

Sustainable Use Projects in Papua New GuineaThe principal of sustainable use has thus been a part of Papua New Guinean conservation

policy for as long as the country has existed. A number of sustainable use projects were

initiated in the late 1970s by the Department of Lands and Environment, which was the

precursor to the current Department of Environment and Conservation. There were three

main farming projects; cassowary farming, crocodile farming and insect farming. The latter

two are still functioning, albeit in slightly different guises, today.

34

The crocodile-farming project was initiated after it was realised that wild populations were

beginning to be significantly impacted upon by hunting. In 1977 the United Nations

Development Programme and the Food and Agriculture Association funded a large-scale

project to “farm” crocodiles (Cherfas, 1979). Crocodile farming continues today with the

Mainland Holdings crocodile farm in Lae supplying circa 9000 skins per annum to the

world market.

The Insect Farming and Trading Agency was established began in 1978 in order to assist

local communities in the collecting and farming of butterflies and other insects. There was

an increasing international demand for Papua New Guinean insects and the Department of

Wildlife was concerned over issues of the sustainability and equity of insect collecting.

The history, uptake and success of this initiative shall be investigated in the following

chapters.

35

Chapter 3

Butterfly Collection and Trade in Papua New Guinea

The Origins of Butterfly CollectingThe insects Papua New Guinea are now renowned amongst collectors as being some of the

most spectacular in the world. PNG is host to six species of Birdwing butterflies so called

due to their wingspans that can reach up to 12 inches. The interest of Western collectors in

the amazingly diverse fauna of Papua New Guinea can be traced back to the beginnings of

the Bird of Paradise plume trade 800 years ago as described in Chapter 1. ‘As early as the

17th century impressive butterfly specimens had reached Europe from [the Moluccas]…The

period marked the start of more concerted efforts as amassing natural history specimens

from the tropics.’ (Parsons, 1999) (see photograph 4)

The Western obsession with the insects of Papua New Guinea only truly began with the

expeditions of collectors such as Wallace and Meek in the late 19th Century. Alfred

Wallace made the first major collections of New Guinea’s fauna in the mid 1800s, amongst

other finds he collected butterflies in what is now West Papua. He remarked that, “[t]he

insects of New Guinea are less known than the birds, but they seem almost equally

remarkable for fine forms and brilliant colours” (Wallace, 1869). In honour of his

collecting achievements, the name wallacei has been used in the descriptions of New

Guinean butterflies [and other insects] (Parsons, 1999). Walter Rothschild employed

Alexander Meek to collect in Papua New Guinea for his private Tring Museum from 1896.

It was in 1906 that Meek happened upon the world’s largest butterfly, Ornithoptera

36

alexandrae, in the plains of what is now Northern Province. In the account of his

adventures, A Naturalist in Cannibal Land, he describes his method of capture for a male of

the species, “One I shot with a shot-gun, but I lost the body because of the wild nature of

the country”. Tales such as Meek’s and Wallace’s have enriched and enlivened the almost

mythical status that Papua New Guinea still has today for many Westerners.

Papua New Guinea continues to be an unknown quantity to those living in the west. There

are many tales of cannibalism, unknown tribes and penis gourds that reinforce cultural

stereotypes. In order to highlight Western misunderstandings of Melanesia Sillitoe (2000)

cites a newspaper article published in the Sunday Telegraph in 1998, “Neighbourhood

disputes do not last long in the Highland of Papua New Guinea. If someone irritates you, a

local sanguma, or hired assassin will kill him or her for the price of a stick of home-grown

tobacco. For good measure the victim can also be eaten…In some cases people are

sacrificing then eating their own children”. All of the comments made within this

newspaper article were completely unfounded.

The propagation of ‘urban myths’ of contemporary PNG combined with the unique nature

of the fauna of Papua New Guinea feeds the desire of Western collectors who search for

the exotic. Diversity of Papua New Guinean fauna not only lies with the Birdwing

Butterflies, Jewel Beetles or Birds of Paradise but with many other animals such as Tree-

kangaroos, Cassowaries and Echidnas (see photographs 5 to 7). In 1869 there were only

seventeen known species of New Guinean mammals (Wallace, 1869) but by 1994 there

were 442 species known (Flannery, 1995a & Flannery, 1995b). The last large mammal to

be discovered in New Guinea was the Tree kangaroo, Dendrolagus dingiso, in 1994

37

(Flannery, 1995b). These facts and figures make it clear why Papua New Guinea is

regarded by the West as one of the most untamed and mysterious countries in the world

today. This mythical status moves people to want ownership over the exotica that it is

thought that Papua New Guinea can provide. An outlet for this desire has crystallised in the

collection of the country’s fauna. At the beginning of the 20th century the logistical

problems associated with travelling to Papua New Guinea, the harshness of the

environment once in the country and the difficulty of collecting the high flying Birdwings

meant that the numbers of them available to Western collectors was low and the price that

they attained was high. As noted by Parsons (1983) the assumption that many of the

Ornithoptera are extremely rare has been perpetuated right up until the present day and has

enhanced their desirability all the more.

The pastime of butterfly collecting began in Britain and was at its peak in the Victorian era.

Collectors such as G.B. Longstaff travelled far and wide to fulfil their obsession. Longstaff

began collecting in 1858 as a boy and from 1903 to 1910 travelled to India, China, Japan,

Canada, Algeria, South Africa, the West Indies, South America, Ceylon, Egypt, Sudan,

New Zealand and Australia. On butterfly collecting he commented, ‘The first sight of such

a thing as the big Hypolimnas bolina, black flashing with violet-blue, excited an emotion

better imagined than described. At all events, the creatures took me fairly by storm: collect

I must!’ (Longstaff, 1912).

Although easily regarded as a Victorian obsession, a description of the desire for butterflies

from Angus Hutton who went on to co-found the Insect Farming and Trading Agency

allows an insight into what drove individuals such as himself to further develop the

38

butterfly market in Papua New Guinea. “Beyond any question, of all living things

butterflies and moths are amongst the loveliest. The enchanting colours of their wings, their

ballet like progress amongst the flowers, their modest food needs, the innocence of their

courtships make them seem fairy like creatures from unspoiled paradise. They are a delight

to curious children, and adults alike wherever they appear. It is as if they were created

solely to make the world more beautiful.” (Hutton, 1974)

Taxonomical collectors are still prevalent worldwide and the value of the global insect

trade is remarkably high. Melisch (2000) gives an example of a pair of birdwings

Ornithoptera meridionalis selling in Germany for $3400 and worldwide retail sales of

butterflies may be as high as $100 million (Parsons, 1992 in Slone et al. 1997). As most

insect collectors live in Europe, Japan or the USA it is hard for them to collect insects

personally from Papua New Guinea. The demand for insects is not only from museums and

for scientific study but also from individuals who want a piece of Papua New Guinean

exotica. The first stages of the trade in Papua New Guinean butterflies came with the

increasing number of expatriates that were based in PNG. Collectors based in the West

initially made personal requests to expatriates to collect for them. Parsons (1999) gives an

example of the missionary Revd Diamond Jenness who during 1911 and 1912, was asked

to collect butterflies and other insects for Professor Edward B. Poulton of Oxford

University, England.

39

Insect Trade in Papua New GuineaThe demand for and availability of Papua New Guinean insects steadily increased post

World War II. Expatriate entrepreneurs, who were renowned in providing little income to

their employed collectors, supplied insects to Western collectors. In the mid sixties the

Australian administration became wary of this unregulated trade, especially with regard to

the collection and sale of Birdwings. In 1968 the Australian government declared seven

species of Ornithoptera to be protected under the Fauna Protection Ordnance of 1966. This

protection status was awarded at a time when very little was known about the distribution

and population status of the species and this decision appears to have been motivated by the

mystique that surrounded the butterflies. ‘The protected status given to the Ornithoptera

was without doubt, based more on an emotional approach…rather than any rational

knowledge of their distribution and status.’ (Parsons, 1983)

This legislation however did not cease the trade in butterflies and expatriate dealers are

reported to have continued to exporting through the 1970s. Perversely the legislature had

the effect of increasing the demand for the protected butterflies since they were now

officially ‘rare’ and the introduction of the legislature was at a time when the number of

western collectors was increasing. Butterfly companies in the USA were openly selling

Ornithoptera alexandrae (O. alexandrae) in the early 1970s. For example the Butterfly

Company had O. alexandrae listed for $285 a pair in 1971 (Butterfly Company, 1971) and

Complete Scientific Supplies had O. alexandrae listed for $340 a pair in 1975 (Complete

Scientific Supplies, 1975). The 1975 listing is notable as this was after Papua New Guinea

had become a CITES signatory in 1973.

40

It was in the 1970s that the next step in the development of the Papua New Guinean insect

trade took place. This decade saw the official introduction of the systematic farming, or

more accurately the ranching of butterflies that culminated in the formation of the Insect

Farming and Trading Agency in 1978. However, the concept of the rearing of captive

butterflies was not a new one; indeed this process was detailed by Meek in 1913.

Butterfly breeding…is quite necessary for the collector who wishes to obtain

really good specimens for museums. Having discovered a new butterfly, his

next step is to search the district for its larvae and pupae. Experience guides

you as to the likely places to search. Each different species of butterfly has

usually a distinguishable difference in its larvae and pupa…The advantage of

breeding as compared with catching the butterflies is, first, that you secure

perfect specimens, and second, that you have a chance of securing now and

again a “sport.” (Meek 1913)

In the early 1970s it was increasingly evident that the insect market was rapidly developing

in Papua New Guinea. In the main this was due to interested expatriates and much

improved communications and logistical network. The Australian government and

individual government officers feared that the collection of butterflies and insects could

spiral out of hand. At this point the country had been divided up by entrepreneurs who had

a written rule that they ‘wouldn’t tread on each others toes’ (pers. comm. Peter Clark,

2004). The pioneers of the insect trade at this point were Harry Borch in the Sepik and

Rabaul, Raymond Straatman in Morobe and the Highlands and Richard Carver (pers.

comm. Peter Clark). Both Borch and Carver were employed as government agriculture

officers and Straatman worked for the Bishop Museum. Peter Clark defined these men as

entrepreneurs but they were also keen amateur entomologists with a passion for ‘bugs’.

41

Borch was employed as an agricultural officer in the Sepik and it was here that he trained

three or four locals in butterfly ranching and collecting. Peter Clark the co-founder of IFTA

was also based in the Sepik and also had an amateur interest in entomology. It was from

Borch that he gained knowledge in the process of ranching butterflies. Clark began to assist

people in the Sepik region in supply of overseas postal orders of insects. Simultaneously

Angus Hutton, a tea plantation manager in Morobe Province, was assisting locals in a

similar business of trade with overseas collectors. Hutton and Clark were assisting Papua

New Guinean collectors and ranchers as ‘major problems with payment, variety of species

and quality quickly became apparent’ (Mercer & Clark, 1989).

Development of the Insect Farming and Trading AgencyIn 1974 the Australian Administration, following requests from Hutton and Clark,

consolidated the ranching and collecting of insects under the Insect Farming and

Conservation Project which became a part of the Division of Wildlife. This was bolstered

by legislation introduced at the time restricting the trade to PNG citizens (Hutton, 1985).

This move by the administration essentially created a government-controlled monopoly on

the butterfly trade. The Department of Wildlife commissioned a report which

recommended the creation of a sustainable development project to promote the

conservation of wild butterflies while providing villagers with an opportunity to participate

in the cash economy (Pyle & Hughes, 1978). Following this report the Insect Farming and

Trading Agency was formed.

42

IFTA was setup in the town of Bulolo in Morobe province in 1978 and has been located

there ever since. It began with the remit to act as the central and sole agency to purchase

insects on behalf of the Papua New Guinean government and to act essentially as the

middleman between farmers and collectors in rural areas and overseas purchasers. The

functions of IFTA are to provide a centralised headquarters that facilitates the link between

overseas buyers and indigenous farmers, to ensure fixed and reasonable prices are paid to

farmers, to ensure that payments are made directly and expediently, to pool stock in order

to fulfil large orders and to serve as an educational centre for prospective farmers to

provide quality control, marketing, field extension, research and monitoring of Papua New

Guinean insects (Parsons, 1999; Mercer & Clark, 1989). During the first ten years of

IFTA’s establishment training was conducted in the following regions; Woodlark Island,

Bougainville, New Ireland, New Britain, Sepik, Madang, Western Highlands Province,

Western Province, Popondetta, Port Moresby, Chimbu, Eastern Highlands Province, Manus

and the Duke of York Islands.

The agency initially came under the remit of the Division of Wildlife, then was transferred

to the Department of Primary Industry and finally in 1989 became a part of the University

of Technology’s (Unitech) commercial arm, the University Development Consultancy

(UDC) in 1989 (Mercer & Clark, 1989). This gradual transformation of an initially state

run monopoly into essentially a private company within the UDC, which has a profit

making remit, is a very important factor in the development of the agency. Many

departmental and personnel reshuffles within the Department of Environment and

Conservation (formerly the Department of Wildlife) as well as personal conflicts involving

IFTA staff and DEC have staff has caused a complete loss of support from the government

43

that IFTA initially enjoyed. The consequences of this have been the loss of IFTA’s

monopoly and, for a certain period of time, the loss of CITES export permits.

In the mid 1990s the DEC began issuing permits for the export of CITES II butterflies to

organisations such as IFTA These were issued to; Wau Ecology Institute (Morobe

Province), OISCA (West New Britain Province), WEIMAX (Western Highlands Province)

& NIF (Morobe Province). DEC's reasoning behind this was that IFTA was failing to work

in provinces outside of Morobe yet half of the new organisations were based in Morobe. It

is reported that the NIF gained its permit by bribing DEC officials with K30000. Within the

department there has also been a tendency against the export of fauna from Papua New

Guinea. This resulted in the cessation of live butterfly exports by IFTA in 1998 (Clark,

1998).

In 1978 the ranching of two species of Birdwing butterfly, Ornithoptera priamus and

Troides oblongomaclatus, began (see photographs 8 and 9). Subsequently through a

process of research and lobbying in the 1980s and 1990s IFTA obtained permission from

the Department of Wildlife to commercially ranch all of the CITES II listed butterflies in

Papua New Guinea.

The butterfly farming system that was refined by IFTA involves the planting of butterfly

food plants (typically Aristolochia and Adenia vines) within village gardens or in

secondary growth forest to enrich the habitat. Butterflies will lay eggs on species specific

vines and subsequently caterpillars will use the vine as a food source until it begins to

pupate. Once a pupa is formed it can be collected by the farmer and either taken to IFTA as

44

a pupa or the farmer can wait for it to hatch and take the dead specimen for sale. The steps

involved in butterfly farming are illustrated in fig. 1. This system of butterfly farming

requires a low financial input and wild stocks of butterflies are not depleted as the farmer

should leave half the pupa on the vine to repopulate the “farm”. The informal arrangement

of vines that constitutes a PNG butterfly farm however make sit very difficult for a farmer

to know how many pupa are present on his vines and thus how many he should collect:

‘this is a very inexact approach to conservation’ (Parson, 1999). Strictly the farming of

butterflies in this manner should be referred to as ranching since the pupa that are collected

come from wild and not captive butterflies. However, in line with conventional use, the

term farming shall be adhered to for the rest of the text.

As well as the farming of CITES II species IFTA also purchases non-protected wild caught

butterflies and other insects such as beetles (see photographs 10 and 11). It is thought that it

is not the collecting of insects that is harmful to wild populations’ number but habitat

destruction. In the Kenyan Arabuko-Sokoke Forest the effect of capture on butterfly

species abundance and diversity was monitored over a four year period of collection. The

results revealed no significant change in the abundance of either collected or uncollected

species, suggesting that butterfly capture was having no profound impact on wild

populations’ (Rodgers et al., 2002). Therefore, provided the resource is wisely used, the

distinction between farmed and wild-caught butterflies is not important in the context of

conservation (Morris, 1986 cited in Parsons, 1999).

Peter Clark set the price of these butterflies arbitrarily during this period. At this point

IFTA was in a monopoly position and was essentially able to name their price on these

45

highly sought after butterflies. When the ranching of Ornithoptera goliath (O. goliath)

began in 1993 IFTA paid the ranchers 60 Kina per pair and sold them on for on average

200 Kina per pair (Clark, 1993). However when numerous dealers illegally exported

O. goliath and other birdwings in Irian Jaya the prices collapsed, even hurting the Papua

New Guinean market in this species (Slone, 1994).

IFTA in its current guise is thus faced with a suite of problems including competition from

within Papua New Guinea due to new licensed insect traders, competition out-with Papua

New Guinea from expanding operations in West Papua and the Solomon Islands and a

disharmonious relationship with the Department of Environment and Conservation.

Compounding this has been the management of IFTA which has in the past 5 years been

conducted by two successive volunteers from Voluntary Services Overseas. Even though

these individuals have proved excellent managers, the discontinuity in staffing and an

increasing reliance on the goodwill of volunteers has no doubt adversely affected the

organisation. It is in this context that the uptake and success of insect farming and

collecting shall be explored in the following chapter.

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47

48

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50

51

Chapter 4

Uptake and Longevity of Insect Farming and Collection

Investigating the Success of Insect Farming ProjectsThe movement of the insect trade from individual control to state control was essential due

to idiosyncratic nature of Clark and Hutton. Individuals with drive and passion motivated

by their interest in the exotic certainly has been a common theme in the development of the

Papua New Guinean insect industry but this invites the question of how these motivations

are transposed onto the rural farmers and collectors.

As has been illustrated in the previous chapter it was due mainly to the role of idiosyncratic

individuals that the Insect Farming Agency developed. Yet it remains unknown as to how

the income generation source that IFTA makes available is utilised by people throughout

Papua New Guinea. In the past twenty-five years the Agency has been highly mooted as a

success story. Magazine articles have included comments such as ‘Insect farming has

proven to be a sound, economically viable rural industry in PNG’ (Wambi, 1996), ‘In

Papua New Guinea, butterfly farmers make as much as 60 times that nation’s per capita

income’ (Hanscom, 1993) and ‘[IFTA is] a near perfect model of a sustainable

development initiative for local people’ (Burrows, 2003).

However, there has been no previous analysis conducted into the benefits that IFTA has

provided to insect farmers and collectors let alone the rigour of the link between its work

and successful conservation. This link shall be explored in Chapter 5 through the

52

presentation of a series of case studies. This chapter will address, through analysis of

IFTA’s purchasing records, how Papua New Guinea’s rural population has taken up this

source of income.

An analysis of the level of earnings through insect collecting and farming has been

conducted using IFTA’s purchasing records. This is in order to gain an insight into the

earnings and success of farmers and collectors throughout Papua New Guinea. The analysis

of the records has been conducted with the aim to answer the following questions-

1. Where has insect farming and collecting been conducted in Papua New Guinea?

2. How long have farming and collecting projects lasted in particular areas?

3. What have been the levels of income for insect farmers and collectors?

4. How long do individuals work as farmers or collectors?

5. Has long-term success been determined by location?

MethodsSince the establishment of IFTA, annual records have been kept of all the Agency’s

purchases of insects from Papua New Guinean collectors and farmers. These records detail

the farmers name, location, date and amount paid. Records from 1995 and 2002 were

chosen for the ‘success’ analysis. This time period was chosen for a number of reasons; a

continuous time set was required for thorough analysis, the records for 2003 are not

complete as IFTA has not yet fulfilled all its payments for that year and due to time

constraints it was not possible to go back further than 1995.

53

The payment records for 1995 to 2002 were entered into spreadsheets and ArcView GIS

3.2. This data source can be viewed in the CD Rom that accompanies this paper.

ResultsIn the 8-year study period individuals in 19 of Papua New Guinea’s 20 Provinces earned an

income from insect farming or collecting. In total there were 11688 purchases made to

4691 farmers or collectors. The total expenditure by IFTA was 12,882,581 Kina which at

current exchange rates equates to £2,263,203. The average income per farmer or collector

over this period was 348 Kina per annum.

Location of Insect Farmers and CollectorsThere has not been a significant decline in the number of villages taking part in this income

generation activity. There were 126 villages in 1995, 130 villages in 1998 and 123 villages

in 2001. The locations of insect farmers and collectors for 1995, 1998 and 2001 are shown

in maps 4, 5 and 6.

Provincial Longevity of Collecting and FarmingThere has been a decline in the number of provinces that have been supplying insects to

IFTA. In 1995 there were 19 provinces yet this figure more than halved to 9 by 2002. This

decline is illustrated in fig. 2.

Total Farmer and Collector IncomeFigure 3 illustrates that there has been an overall increase in income for farmers and

collectors, yet there has been a sharp decline in earnings from 2001 to 2002.

54

Annual Provincial EarningsFig.4 shows that the level of income through insect collection and farming have been at

their highest in Morobe province. However, the level of income in Morobe began to

decline from 2000 to 2002 at which point earnings were at a comparable level to those of

1997 and 1996. Fig.4 also indicates that the North Solomons Province has the most positive

growth in income from 1995 to 2002.

Average Provincial IncomeIt can be seen in Table 1 that the level of income between provinces is highly variable.

Twelve of the provinces’ incomes have averaged below 1000 Kina per annum in the 8-year

study period. These twelve provinces can be classified as Low Income (yellow shading).

Six of the Provinces have had average earnings between 1000 and 10000 Kina per annum

and have been classified as Middle Income (orange shading). Only Morobe Province had

per annum income averaging above 10000 kina, at an average of 57620. As such this is the

only province to be classified as High Income (red shading).

Patterns of Provincial IncomeFigures 5 through to 23 allow a finer representation of income within individual provinces.

They illustrate that income can be highly variable and in most provinces income has been

declining over the eight-year study period. Twelve of the provinces have had very low

earnings from collecting and farming (figs. 4 to 15). Only the Eastern Highlands province

has shown continual levels of growth (fig. 19). As well as the Eastern Highlands four more

provinces had a higher level of income in 2002 than in 1995, these were Madang (fig.14),

Milne Bay (fig.16), Simbu (fig. 20) and North Solomons (fig. 21).

55

Range of Individual IncomeTo show the variety of incomes that have been achieved through insect farming and

collecting the range of individual income for 2002 is shown in fig. 24. The range for 2002

was between 0 and 2383.9 Kina with a mean income of K162.

Number of Insect Farmers and CollectorsThere has been an almost continual decline of the number of individuals working as insect

farmers or collectors (fig. 25).

Duration of Insect Farmers and CollectorsThe numbers of years that individuals have continued as farmers or collectors is shown in

fig. 26. It can been seen that there is a rapid decline in interest in insect farming or

collecting. From the total of 4691 farmers who sold insects to IFTA from 1999 to 2002

only 14 did so for the full eight year period.

Summary of results• From 1995 to 2002 the number of provinces that have insect collectors or farmers

supplying IFTA has halved

• The number of villages providing insects has remained stable

• The average level of income has increased but this trend is beginning to decline

• Only one province has shown continual growth in earnings over 8 years

• Only 5 provinces were earning more in 2002 than they were in 1995

• Provinces with low numbers of farmers or collectors have been highly erratic and

unstable in their earnings

• The level of continuation of farming or collecting has been very low

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DiscussionThe results that have been yielded from the graphical analysis serve well to answer the

posed research questions. The overall impression that is gained from the results is that

IFTA has not been performing well in its goal to serve as a source of a long-term income

for rural Papua New Guineans. This may well be true but a number of factors affected the

decline in locations as well as number and longevity of farmers. These shall be explored in

the discussion of the research questions that were proposed at the beginning of the chapter.

Where has insect farming and collecting been conducted in Papua New Guinea?The farming and collecting of insects has occurred in all but one of Papua New Guinea’s

Provinces between 1995 and 2002. It is also known that farming has occurred in Enga

province in the early 1980’s (pers. comm. Catherine Aisi, 2004). Thus at one point or

another income generation through IFTA has occurred throughout all provinces in PNG.

The locations of insect farmers and collectors are clustered in most provinces. These

clusters of collectors and farmers have occurred in the locations where training by IFTA

staff has been conducted. The clusters would also suggest that farmers and collectors have

an informal support network that allows the sharing of skills and techniques which help to

perpetuate interest in this income generating activity and improve the quality of insects

supplied to IFTA. The bulk of insect farmers and collectors are situated nearby main roads

as indicated on Maps 4 to 6. This suggests that although it has been stated that collectors

and farmers would be able to operate in areas that are only accessible by air, as insects are a

low weight to high value commodity, this has not been the case. This could be because

either air-freight is in reality prohibitively expensive or IFTA has not been able to visit

remote areas in order to conduct training.

57

How long have farming and collecting projects lasted in particular areas?The farming and collecting of insects has tended to last longer in the provinces that have

been prescribed in the results as having either a Middle or High Income. Although all the

Middle Income provinces did not supply IFTA every year, for the study period, they all had

individuals earning in 2002. The Low Income provinces, as prescribed in the results

section, have had at the most one or two individuals engaged in insect farming or

collecting. None of these individuals underwent a formal IFTA training programme. With a

lack of formal support and training, collectors and farmers can have little understanding of

the high quality of specimens that are required by IFTA. Thus, when submitted specimens

are rejected, interest in this income generating activity can quickly die out. The sporadic

nature of earnings in the Low Income Provinces shows that there is interest in insect

collecting and farming outwith the core group of provinces supplying IFTA. This once

again emphasises the lack of support that these individuals have received from the agency

since at least 1995.

What have been the levels of income for insect farmers and collectors?Using purely the average per annum income for all the farmers and collectors throughout

Papua New Guinea gives a distorted impression as many of these individuals have dropped

out after only one year of farming or collecting. As incomes have varied between

practically nothing and several thousand Kina per annum there is an indication that this

kind of income generating activity can be fitted into a range of livelihood strategies. This

range of strategies is explored in further detail, through the use of case studies, in

Chapter 5.

58

How long do individuals work as farmers or collectors?The longevity of individuals as farmers or collectors has been shown to be low. In addition

to this only one of the fourteen people who earned an income every year from 1995 to 2002

lived outside of Morobe Province. The low level of longevity suggests that insect farming

and collecting is only suitable to most people for a relatively short period of time. The lack

of suitability of this source of income could be due to a host of factors; farmers and

collectors could have begun other income generating activities, such as Vanilla farming in

the Sepik, which prove to be more profitable than insect farming; farmers and collectors

aren’t receiving enough advice or support from IFTA; farmers and collectors could be

selling to other insect buying agencies such as Wau Ecology Institute (that began buying

insects in 1994).

Has long-term success been determined by location?The contraction in geographic spread of colleting and ranching indicates that IFTA is

lacking the capacity to maintain regions that lie a long way from its office in Morobe

Province. The only outlying Province that didn’t see an income decline was the North

Solomons. This province actually had the greatest overall growth in income during the

eight year study period. The other remote regions such as Sandaun, New Ireland, New

Britain, Gulf, Western and Manus that have no road link with Morobe had all ceased insect

collecting or ranching by 2002. Even some of the Provinces that are more accessible such

as Central, National Capital District and the Southern Highlands had ceased earning

income.

Thus location does indeed seem to be a factor yet the success of North Solomons shows

that this isn’t always the case. There are two factors that have placed the North Solomons

59

in a better situation than the other outlying provinces: levels of training and the

Bougainville crisis. In the 1980’s and 1990’s several extension trips had been made to the

North Solomons in order to start farming the birdwing butterfly, Ornithoptera priamus

urvillianus and the uptake of this project was high. The virtual isolation in which this

province found itself for several years due to the Bougainville crisis severely limited the

income generating opportunities of its populace. Once the crisis died down in the late 90s

after the Bougainville crisis the well trained butterfly farmers there were keen to resume

earning an income from IFTA.

60

Map 4. Insect Farming and Collecting Locations, 1995

Map 5. Insect Farming and Collecting Locations, 1998

61

Map 6. Insect Farming and Collecting Locations, 2001

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Year

Num

ber

of P

rovi

nces

Fig. 2. The number of provinces with individuals collecting and farming insects (1995 to 2002)

62

0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000

140000

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Year

Inco

me

(Kin

a)

Fig. 3. Total income for Papua New Guinean insect farmers and collectors (1995 to 2002)

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

80000

90000

100000

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Year

Inco

me

(Kin

a)

CentralEastern HighlandsEast New BritainEast SepikGulfMadangMilne BayMorobeNational Capital DistrictNew IrelandNorth SolomonsSandaunSouthern HighlandsSimbuWesern HighlandsWest New BritainWestern

Fig. 4. The income of insect farmers and collectors by province (1995 to 2002)

63

Table. 1. Average per annum income per province for insect farming and collecting (1995 to 2002)

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Year

Inco

me

(Kin

a)

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Year

Inco

me

(Kin

a)

Fig. 5. Income for insect farmers and collectors inNational Capital District (1995-2002)

Fig. 6. Income for insect farmers and collectors inNew Ireland Province (1995-2002)

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Year

Inco

me

(Kin

a)

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Year

Inco

me

(Kin

a)

Fig. 7. Income for insect farmers and collectors inWestern Province (1995-2002)

Fig. 8. Income for insect farmers and collectors inCentral Province (1995-2002)

Province Average Per Annum Provincial Earnings(Kina)

National Capital District 7New Ireland 11Western 20Central 22Sandaun 26Gulf 41East New Britain 73Southern Highlands 91West New Britain 182Manus 295Madang 341Western Highlands 634Milne Bay 1181Northern 1214East Sepik 3881Eastern Highlands 3936Simbu 7290North Solomons 8604Morobe 57620

64

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Year

Inco

me

(Kin

a)

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Year

Inco

me

(Kin

a)

Fig. 9. Income for insect farmers and collectors inSandaun Province (1995-2002)

Fig. 10. Income for insect farmers and collectors inGulf Province (1995-2002)

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Year

Inco

me

(Kin

a)

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Year

Ear

ning

s (K

ina)

Fig. 11. Income for insect farmers and collectors inEast New Britain Province (1995-2002)

Fig. 12. Income for insect farmers and collectors inSouthern Highlands Province (1995-2002)

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Year

Ear

ning

s (K

ina)

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Year

Ear

ning

s (K

ina)

2

Fig. 13. Income for insect farmers and collectors inWest New Britain Province (1995-2002)

Fig. 14. Income for insect farmers and collectors inManus Province (1995-2002)

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Year

Ear

ning

s (K

ina)

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Year

Inco

me

(Kin

a)

Fig. 15. Income for insect farmers and collectors inMadang Province (1995-2002)

Fig. 16. Income for insect farmers and collectors inWestern Highlands Province (1995-2002)

65

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Year

Inco

me

(Kin

a)

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Year

Inco

me

(Kin

a)

Fig. 17. Income for insect farmers and collectors inMilne Bay Province (1995-2002)

Fig. 18. Income for insect farmers and collectors inNorthern Province (1995-2002)

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Year

Inco

me

(Kin

a)

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Year

Inco

me

(Kin

a)

Fig. 19. Income for insect farmers and collectors inEast Sepik Province (1995-2002)

Fig. 20. Income for insect farmers and collectors inEastern Highlands Province (1995-2002)

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Year

Inco

me

(Kin

a)

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Year

Ear

ning

s (K

ina)

Fig. 21. Income for insect farmers and collectors inSimbu Province (1995-2002)

Fig. 22. Income for insect farmers and collectors inNorth Solomon’s Province (1995-2002)

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

80000

90000

100000

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Year

Inco

me

(Kin

a)

Fig. 23. Income for insect farmers and collectors inMorobe Province (1995-2002)

66

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

0-200 201-400 401-600 601-800 801-1000 1001-1200 1201-1400 1401-1600 1601-1800 1801-2000 2001-2200 2201-2400

Income Range (Kina)

Num

ber

of C

olle

cotr

s an

d F

arm

ers

Fig. 24. The range of insect farmer and collector incomes in 2002 for the whole of Papua New Guinea

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Year

Num

ber

of C

olle

ctor

s an

d Fa

rmer

s

Fig. 25. The number of individuals farming and collecting between 1995 and 2002

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Number Years Earning an Income from Insect Farming or Collecting

Num

ber

of F

arm

ers

and

Col

lect

ors

Fig. 26. The longevity of insect farmers and collectors

67

Chapter 5

Case Studies of the Brands ofCollectors and Farmers

The previous chapter gave an overall picture of the state of insect farming and collecting

throughout Papua New Guinea. The following case studies provide an understanding of

how this income source is integrated into a range of livelihood strategies. The utilisation of

a source of income from insect farming and collecting can be divided into a number of

strategies to suit individual situations. The following four case studies represent four such

methods of integration: as a sole urban income (butterfly collecting), as an additional urban

income (butterfly farming), as a rural income (butterfly farming) and an additional urban

income (illegal trading).

Interviews for the case studies were conducted informally with brief notes being made

during my meetings with the various informants; more detailed notes were made after the

interviews were conducted. No structured questionnaires were used and all of the meetings

were conducted in Pidgin English.

Case Study 1 – Ken KubeThe first case study is an example of how butterfly collecting can be used as a sole income

in an urban setting.

68

This case is based on Ken Kube (see photograph 12), a resident of the small town of Bulolo

in Morobe Province and where IFTA has been based for over twenty-five years. The

number of people that utilise insect collecting as their sole source of income is very low

and Ken is amongst one of the hardest working collectors in Morobe Province. In 2002 he

had the highest income from IFTA out of the whole of Papua New Guinea.

Ken Kube is a single man in his early forties; he has no dependants and has been living in

the town of Bulolo for the past nine years. He originally came from the Highlands province

of Simbu and as such has no tenure of any land in the Bulolo region. He resides in an

immigrant area of Bulolo known as New Camp. This area is solely for immigrants to the

Bulolo area of which there are many due to the relatively large forestry and gold operations

that are, and have been, present in the town. He moved to Morobe province in the early

1990s when he took up employment with one of his Wantoks (clansmen) in Wau. His

employment in Wau terminated in 1995 and he subsequently moved to New Camp.

On moving to Bulolo in 1995 Ken learned of the Insect Farming and Trading Agency and

began to collect butterflies. This has been his sole source of income since he started selling

butterflies to IFTA in 1996. As he has no ownership of land in Bulolo, he doesn’t farm

butterflies, instead he goes to open access areas and collects non-protected species. There

are large amounts of open access land surrounding Bulolo due to the presence of the timber

company, PNG Forest Products. They own large areas of plantation pine in which several

residents from New Camp, including Ken, go to collect.

69

The collecting areas that Ken uses are at least a 2-hour walk from his home. For collecting

he makes use of the forestry trails (see photograph 13) within the plantations as well as

following the creeks that flow through them. The only equipment that he requires for this

work is a butterfly net made from mosquito netting and folded paper to store butterflies.

Ken estimates that on a good day he will be able to sell about 10% of the butterflies that he

catches. Whilst walking with him on a collecting trip it became evident that he does not

capture all the butterflies that he comes across. Some are only worth 20 to 30 toea and he

does believe that it is worth trying to capture anything in this price range. He chooses not to

collect other insects such as beetles as he would have to go into the bush to find them rather

than follow the forest trails and does not feel that their value is worth the effort. Also, he

prefers to concentrate on catching Papilio ulysees (P. ulysees) because it attracts a higher

price than most other specie. He will earn K2.5 for a perfect specimen (equivalent to 50p).

The particular technique that Ken uses to capture P. ulysees can be seen in photograph 14.

This involves catching a female of the species, killing it and then attaching it to a stick. The

dead female then attracts males of the species that Ken is easily able to catch.

As mentioned before, the areas in which Ken collects is open access for butterfly and insect

collectors but the forestry company that owns the land doesn’t allow gold panning as this

can destabilise soils and cause root damage to trees. Also many people from New Camp

use the plantation as a site for collecting butterflies but the collectors have informally

divided the plantations up so that each person has their own particular collecting area.

There have been several violent disputes among the collectors over the prime collecting

locations.

70

Ken’s income from butterfly collecting is shown in fig.27 this data was derived from the

purchasing records that were used in Chapter 4. His income has been quite varied but he is

content that collecting offers him enough money for his needs. In the last couple of years

he has however stopped selling to IFTA and now sells to the Wau Ecology Institute as it

offers 50 toea (10p) more per P. ulysees.

Although a high level of collecting effort is required to yield a reasonable income. Butterfly

collecting offers an income to Ken as and when he needs it. This suits him well as he is

single with no dependants.

This type of income strategy through collecting would be much harder to conduct in any

region of Papua New Guinea because of a number of factors. Due to IFTA’s long-term

presence in Bulolo it meant that Ken was able to take up collecting relatively easily, as

many people were already trained in collecting techniques. PNG Forest Products are

familiar with and supportive of IFTA and therefore allow collection to take place on their

land. Ken is able to get guaranteed purchases of his butterflies and is practically able to get

paid instantly. The lag time between collection and payment is much higher for those who

send in butterflies and insects by post from other provinces than for those who are able to

go to Wau Ecology or IFTA personally.

The case of Ken Kube offers a good example of the collection of butterflies in order to

provide a rural income but the link between that income and an increased attachment and

awareness of the environment is lacking. As he has to collect on land belonging to a

forestry company he has no influence over what happens to that land. While the author was

71

on a collecting trip with him he killed practically all of the butterflies that he collected

before inspecting the wings for damage. His collecting activity has however spurred him on

to read further about butterflies and he has bought an entomology text in order to learn

more about breeding cycles and food plants. Through talking with him he also appears to

have quite considerable knowledge of the environment including the El Nino event that

affected PNG in 1997.

Case Study 2 - Pine Lodge Hotel and the Illegal TradeThe second case study is an example of the burgeoning illegal trade of insects from Papua

New Guinea and how local people are using it as a source of income.

The presence of IFTA in Bulolo for over twenty-five years has meant that for international

collectors the town has become synonymous with insects. Some collectors like to make

trips to Papua New Guinea to collect for themselves rather than purchase insects through

the post. Due to the notoriety of Bulolo many of these ‘insect tourists’ make sure that they

visit Bulolo. With decreasing international air fares and increasing ease of travel several

such collectors visit the town each year. In the past the ‘insect tourists’ went on collecting

trips organised by IFTA yet the frequency of these organised trips is beginning to decrease

due to the tourists’ realisation that it is cheaper to buy insects direct from local farmers and

collectors. This activity is illegal yet is becoming increasingly prevalent in the town.

The nexus of the illegal trade of insects in Bulolo is the Pine Lodge Hotel. This is the only

hotel in the town and as such it is the only place for visiting tourists to stay. Bulolo has

72

approximately 100 tourists per year and these are mostly Japanese with a handful of

Americans and Europeans.

An employee of the hotel, Bob Kuri (see photograph 15), acts as a facilitator of the illegal

trade. Bob is employed by the Pine Lodge as a gardener, but prior to this was a tour guide

for the hotel. He utilises the trade in illegal insects as a supplementary income to the wage

that he receives from the hotel. He is in his mid thirties, married with several children and

originally from the Eastern Highlands province. He moved to Bulolo in the early 1990s to

take up employment with the Hotel. He struck me as confident, strong willed and was more

than willing to talk about the profitable nature of butterflies and other insects.

The arrangements for local farmers and collectors to come to the Hotel to sell butterflies

when tourists visit are made by Bob. People come from throughout Bulolo and the

surrounding area. This includes farmers of the CITES II protected species, O. goliath,

Ornithoptera meridionalis (O. meridionalis) and Ornithoptera priamus (O. priamus).

Most frequently it is non-protected species such as P. ulysees that are sold to tourists. Bob

overcomes the problem of permits for non-protected insects by instructing tourists to go to

IFTA to buy a small number of insects in order to obtain a blanket export permit. It is a

more complex task to obtain CITES II permits which are required for all of the

Ornithoptera species. This is done through another Bulolo resident who has a family

member in the Department of Environment and Conservation, from whom CITES permits

can be obtained. This individual sells CITES II permits to tourists for 800 Kina.

73

Farmers sell butterflies to tourists at a higher price than IFTA is willing to pay at 5 Kina for

O. priamus, 150 Kina for O. goliath and 250 Kina for O. meridionalis. Theses prices

represent a considerable saving for international collectors with the prices from IFTA being

as follows: O. priamus 15 Kina, O. goliath 180 Kina and O. meridionalis 750 Kina. The

cheaper prices combined with the cost of the illegal permits means that buying from

farmers is still more profitable for the tourists than buying from IFTA as long as they

purchase a large enough quantity of birdwings.

As well as tourists there are infrequent visits by dealers who buy considerable quantities of

butterflies. Bob remembers one particular Japanese dealer, named Noboru, who visited in

2002 and 2003. He purchased only birdwing butterflies and the highly priced Jewel beetles,

in two visits he spent a total of 63000 Kina.

The work by Bob Kuri as a “tour guide” represents a significant wage to him when there

are international collectors visiting Bulolo. Bob charges 50 Kina a day for his services,

representing five times his normal income. He also receives tips from tourists which he

reported as being as high as 700 Kina. Bob has realised that there is real money to be made

in the illicit trade of butterflies and would like to expand his ability to do so. For example

after several requests from tourists he would be quite willing to sell the CITES I listed

Ornithoptera alexandrae if he was able to obtain specimens from Northern province.

The illegal trade in butterflies undermines the work of IFTA. The investment that the

agency has made in training and support of farmers is being eroded by the direct sale of

butterflies and other insect to tourists and dealers. This activity will further destabilise the

74

delicate world market in Papua New Guinean insects. Yet as long as this is a viable and

well-paid option for individuals such as Bob Kuri it will continue.

Case Study 3 – Farming Goliath in Gumi VillageThe third case study reports on the farming of a birdwing butterfly in the rural village of

Gumi and the impact that global butterfly prices have had on farmers there.

The village of Gumi lies 30km to the west of Bulolo in Morobe province. In 1993 IFTA

was granted permission to begin farming projects for the CITES II listed birdwing

Ornithoptera goliath, the world’s second largest butterfly. Gumi lies at the centre of this

species’ distribution within Morobe province and thus it was here that IFTA chose to begin

its Goliath farming project. The uptake of the project was initially high due to the price

offered by IFTA for O. goliath at 60 Kina per pair. At this point IFTA had a monopoly

over the production and export of this birdwing yet due to illegal exports from West Papua

and new licensed butterfly exporters within Papua New Guinea this is no longer the case.

Crashes that occurred to the price of O. goliath in 1995 means that specimens are now only

bought for 10 Kina. The impact of the devaluation of O. goliath on the income of Gumi has

been great (fig.28) and presently there are only six butterfly farmers remaining in the

village.

In fig. 28 it can be seen that the income generated from the farming of O. goliath was very

high in 1994 at 27140 Kina, then from 1995 a large proportion of farmers stopped due to

the sharp decline in the price of O. goliath. In the two years that O. goliath was attracting a

75

high value the villagers got accustomed to this new source of high income. Foodplants still

remain in many people’s gardens yet they are unwilling to collect the pupa and sell them to

IFTA as they now feel that they are not making enough money. There was no realisation by

the farmers that the price could fluctuate and it was expected that the price of O. goliath

would only go up over time and not down. Only one man, Yawising Yakamtung, farmed in

Gumi for every year from 1994 to 2002 and he has subsequently stopped.

As the farmers that are currently working were not doing so when the price of O. goliath

was high they are less disaffected with IFTA. Even though the only other source of income

for the village is coffee, which requires a high input of time and labour to yield a relatively

low return, the last remaining butterfly farmers (Hiob Wekiko, Hams Hiob, Gedisa Eauko,

Koni Gedisa and Dexie Gedisa) (see photograph 16) are considering stopping farming. The

farmers that are still active say that the farming of O. goliath is carried out by all members

of their household. As with the case of Ken Kube the link between the farmers earning

money from butterflies and this causing them to have an increased attachment to the

environment appears to be lacking. This could well be to do with the decrease in the value

of O. goliath however, the farmers report that they never set aside any of their forest to act

as a source for O. goliath. This was because they believed that there, “will always be plenty

of them” (pers. comm. Gedisa Eauko, 2004) regardless of the pressure put on populations

due to farming.

Yateng Kitombing who describes himself as the “butterfly spokesman’ for the village, has

learned of the price at which IFTA sells the O. goliath to overseas customers (300 Kina)

and is therefore very unhappy that people in the village are only receiving 10 Kina per

76

butterfly. He believes the price for O. goliath should be set at half the retail price or Gumi

itself should be allowed to sell direct to overseas customers as he sees this as a way to gain

a better income from the butterfly.

In the eleven years since IFTA first sold O. goliath on the world market there has been a

gradual decline in sales as the marketplace has become saturated. This process of boom and

bust has occurred with all the birdwing butterflies that have been put onto the market by

IFTA.

IFTA is not overly concerned with the cessation of butterfly farming in Gumi (pers. comm.

Catherine Aisi) as they have a large stock of O. goliath. Sales of the species have been very

slow as the world market appears to be saturated and they are unable to compete with the

low priced O. goliath specimens that are coming out of West Papua.

This case study exemplifies the delicate nature of the butterfly market and the profound

impact that it can have in rural livelihoods. Overall the outlook for butterfly farming in

Gumi is not good and due to poor relations between village members it is more than likely

that the farming of O. goliath will cease all together. This case study makes it apparent that

more planning, fore-thought and the use of experts other than biologists and entomologists

is required for future initiation of other farming projects by IFTA.

77

Case Study 4 – Wau Butterfly FarmersThe forth and final case study is that of butterfly farming in an urban centre where this

activity is used as an supplementary income to a fortnightly wage.

The town of Wau is situated an hours drive to the south of Bulolo in Morobe province. On

the outskirts of the town is the Wau Coffee Plantation and it is five workers from here who

have taken up the faming of O. priamus and O. goliath in order to earn an additional

income on top of what they receive from the coffee plantation.

The five farmers, Nafau Lucas, Tonny Yamti, Giamalu Wapi, Yeno Ayum & Robert

Banabas (see photograph 17), began farming after receiving training in butterfly farming

from the manager of the Wau Ecology Institute’s insect farm, Mike Hudson. The plantation

workers have made use of their private gardens to set up their butterfly farms. A block of

protected forest close to their homes, owned by the Wau Ecology Institute, acts as a source

of butterflies.

They mostly farm O. priamus for which they receive 5 Kina per specimen. They are also

able to farm a much smaller number of O. goliath which is worth 10 Kina per specimen.

The amount that these farmers earn through this enterprise is relatively low, on average

they receive 300 Kina per annum. Yet, as this is only an additional income they believe that

it is more than worth their while. Butterfly farming is a relatively easy task for them

compared with their day job at the plantation. Only one of the five farmers has assistance

from his family in rearing the butterflies.

78

The supplementary income represents an extra months wage on top of their pay from the

coffee plantation. This income is used to purchase extra household items such as sugar, salt

and soap as well a contribution towards school fees.

The example of the coffee plantation workers makes a striking contrast with the Gumi

villagers. When the workers are able to farm the occasional O. Goliath they are very happy

as it returns it earns them 10 Kina. They can’t believe that something which they regard as

worthless has so much value.

The final case study has shown that butterfly farming is well suited as an additional income

source especially when the farmers are on a constant fortnightly wage. Individuals are less

concerned with the prices that the butterflies attract as they aren’t nearly as dependant on

this source of income as others such as Ken Kube and the Gumi Villagers.

All four of the case studies show that the insect trade can be implemented in a wide variety

of ways in order to fit differing livelihood strategies. The farming of butterflies appears to

fit especially well as an additional income source, as exemplified with Case Study 4. The

case studies have also raised some points of great concern. There appears to be a thriving

black market in butterfly and insect sales alongside the legal insect trade. If allowed to

continue this will only serve to negatively affect the future possibility of rural incomes

through insect farming and collecting. Also of concern is the pricing structure butterflies

that IFTA implemented in the early 1990’s. When the point prices were set problems such

as the illegal trade and the breaking of IFTA’s monopoly weren’t apparent. This lack of

79

foresight has caused major problems both for IFTA and the rural communities that rely

upon it for an income.

80

81

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Year

Inco

me

(Kin

a)

Fig. 27. Ken Kube’s Butterfly Collecting Income (1996 to 2002)

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

1994 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Year

Inco

me

(Kin

a)

Fig. 28. Gumi Village income from the farming of O. goliath (1994 to 2002)

82

83

ConclusionTaken at face value the collection of farming and insects in Papua New Guinea seems a

bizarre concept; an activity that harks back to the Victorian era. Yet this activity has shown

to provide income to many individuals in both urban and rural areas of Papua New Guinea.

It has been twelve years since the Canadian International Development Agency concluded

‘that the contribution of IFTA … to rural economics is unknown’ (Prescott-Allen &

Prescott-Allen, 1992). The research that has been presented in this paper has initiated a

rigorous examination of this contribution. It has been shown that insect collectors and

farmers have been engaged in this activity in every province of the country at some point.

Incomes vary greatly from a few Kina a year on the most part to several thousand Kina for

a few individuals. Also, this form of income generation can be adapted to suit a variety of

livelihood strategies and is especially useful in supplying a ‘diversification option for

household incomes whose other sources of income are generally unreliable’

(Ashley, 1999). This type of income also requires a relatively low investment of capital

whether it be physical, financial or natural.

The implications that insect farming and collecting has for biodiversity conservation, can

only be loosely known at present. There are two potential areas of conservation that insect

farming and collecting can influence: the direct conservation of insects and the indirect

conservation of forest resources through environmental awareness.

84

Addressing the first area of influence it appears that the IFTA project has allowed the

sustainable use of butterflies and other insect as the same species have been provided to the

organisation from the same locale for twenty-five years. However, there is no quantitative

proof that farming and collecting has not eroded the integrity of insect populations.

Comments made in 1992 still hold true today that there has not been any quantitative work

conducted on the effects that butterfly farming has had on wild populations

(Martens, 1992). Until this work has been conducted there can be no conclusive evidence

that there is a direct link between insect farming/collecting and conservation of biological

resources and it is unable to have ‘rightly earned its reputation as an exemplary case of

wildlife utilisation’ (Martens, 1992). However, in addressing the second area of

conservation influence insect farming and collecting has gone some way to increase

awareness that forests can provide an income source other than timber. In the areas studied

in this paper butterflies and insects alone do not have a high enough value to persuade

people to keep part of their forest as a ‘set aside’ conservation area, but there are reports of

people in the Aseki area (a two drive to the east of Bulolo) setting aside forest to act as a

source of O. meridionalis.

The image of insect farming being a perfect way of providing rural incomes is unfounded

and there are many problems facing those using it as a means of income. A reassessment

and further research into insect farming and collecting in Papua New Guinea is required.

More work needs to be conducted at a village level, especially in the areas that have ceased

farming, in Low Income provinces in order to understand why farming or collecting failed

in those regions, rather than to rely on conjecture. The insect trading agencies that have

fallen outside the scope of this paper need to be investigated before a complete

85

understanding of the uptake and success of insect farming and collecting can be attained.

This could prove to be problematic, not only is it unknown whether any of the other insect

trading organisations, apart from Wau Ecology Institute, keep any form of records but the

legality of these groups, especially NIF, is in doubt.

IFTA has been practically stagnant over the past decade. The organisation has been under

pressure from the Department of Environment and Conservation, subject to competition in

the form of other insect agencies both nationally and internationally and suffered from

being inflexible and unadaptable in its current guise. These factors will no doubt have

resulted in the organisation underperforming and thus having a direct impact on the uptake

and success of insect farming throughout Papua New Guinea. The under performance of

the organisation has manifested itself in its lack of capacity to conduct regular training and

an inability to pay farmers and collectors regularly and on time.

The Insect Farming and Trading Agency needs to be restructured and adapt in order to cope

with the factors that have impacted its performance as an organisation over the past decade.

One positive step has been the resumption of IFTA training courses earlier this year. This is

through the work of a VSO volunteer, David Whittaker, who has initiated have training

projects. Training workshops began in July of this year and have been conducted in the

following provinces; Western Highlands, Southern Highlands, West New Britain, North

Solomons and Morobe.

86

Further research and assistance for IFTA and other suitable organisations is required in

order to turn what is a fundamentally good approach for income generation and

conservation to a truly exemplary one.

87

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