Muslim Women In Kenya Raise Butterflies To Aid Forests

Butterflies are empowering and transforming the lives of many women in the village of Gede on the eastern coast of Kenya

MOMBASA, Kenya, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Nov, 2019 ) :Butterflies are empowering and transforming the lives of many women in the village of Gede on the eastern coast of Kenya.

Gede is well-known for its ancient ruins which consist of mansions, mosques and houses that are estimated to be around 800 years old.

Muslim women from a community-based enterprise in Gede dubbed the Kipepeo Project which supports people's livelihoods are selling high-quality and diverse butterflies and moth pupae to international markets -- mostly Europe and America, with the U.K. and Turkey being their biggest markets -- thus fighting against poverty and becoming empowered.

Most of them, like Rehema Hassan, are uneducated and rely on the lucrative butterfly business to pay school fees for their children and cater for their daily needs.

The women are armed with butterfly hunting gear. Some lay traps in trees while others use homemade nets with handles.

They scour the forests for butterflies, being careful to avoid the many elephant corridors. Hassan said the key is not injuring the butterflies by using cheap nets.

She said that in the past, she used to sell firewood and charcoal.

Charcoal is one of the most common forms of cooking fuel used by communities that live next to the forest. They make it by cutting trees. The trees are partially burnt and buried in the earth, where they slowly burn. By the time they cool, they become charcoal.

Hassan struggled to seize a butterfly that was fluttering its wings inside a stationary butterfly trap. After a few seconds, with a gentle clutch, her hand revealed an iridescent glow from a dancing Charaxes butterfly.

She carefully placed the fragile insect in a net-like basket where it joined around a dozen others, all with vivid colors.

According to the United Nations Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (UN-REDD), the project's main aim is to link development and conservation.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, the UN's Griet Ingrid Dierckxsens explained how conservation comes into play in the project.

"This project is a very good example of the kinds of policies that UN-REDD is following. People need a livelihood. In order to stop people from cutting forests, which are carbon sinks, they have to see what is important about the forests," she said.

"They make a lot of money from the exports -- more than they would make selling charcoal and timber from trees. An annual return in this project is like $1.9 million. This is an incentive for them to protect their forests."Around 200 pupae can be sold for 13,000 Kenyan shillings (roughly US$130). A single butterfly can lay up to 500 eggs. In the wild, only one out of 20 of these eggs will grow to adulthood, whereas in controlled spaces, the chances of survivability are greatly increased.