Rafting, Honey, and Butterflies in the Rain Forest of Sulawesi, Indonesia

by The Nature Conservancy

Partners:

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) Lore Lindu National Park (PHPA) CARE - Indonesia University of Guelph

Success Stories

One farmer has quickly become an expert butterfly farmer, partly due to competition with other villagers, and partly due to his own pleasure in the skills involved. Apart from the potential market of live pupae exports, Pak Putujiwa has also been selling dead specimens of Papiliobutterflies to a local dealer. He has used proceeds from both sales to buy a bicycle - in his words, this is a successful new enterprise and he wanted to buy something worthwhile people can see.

Beekeepers appear to be demonstrating their bravado in catching up new colonies of wild bees -- they do this bare-chested! Actually their reason is that the Apis cerana bee is quite docile, and will only sting badly if squeezed against their chests by clothes. Masks and gloves are now being distributed so that swollen hands and faces are a thing of the past. Returns to one Honey Hunter were doubled when project staff transported him and 100 liters of his product to Palu for sale -- it is hoped that Martinus will now act to seed formation of honey hunter co-operative groups in the Napu Valley.

Challenges

Butterfly Enterprise -- the major challenge is to overcome government resistance to export of live butterflies; this is being attempted through lobbying and workshops with PHPA staff who are concerned that export of live pupae will allow breeding stocks to be maintained outside Indonesia. Although there are worries over loss of markets, the main issue concerns loss of genetic material -- the issue of genetic property rights.

The main problem facing the Honey Enterprise reflects a breakdown in project management due to communication difficulties between the field and managers in the United States and Ujung Pandang and the major illness of one of the key local consultants. To overcome this, the project has been restructured to be managed through the TNC Palu Field Office, with consultants being retained to provide technical advice and inputs in technical aspects like honey quality control and ecological monitoring.

The main problem facing the Rafting Enterprise concerns the physical isolation of the Bada Valley -- a rafting trip involves a major, expensive, expedition from the current base in Rantepao, Toraja, which is not attractive to passing tourists. Specialist tour operators are being contacted and there are several bookings for 1997. Establishing a local base for operations has been further hampered by the bankruptcy of one of the local partner companies, which must be resolved.

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