Can butterfly farming help save the worlds vanishing rainforests?
There’s a hypothesis in chaos theory that tiny air currents rippling out from a single butterfly’s wings can swell into a storm half a world away. If one wing beat could alter the atmosphere, what about clouds of the colourful insects? © Wayne BarrettWild theories aside, butterflies can change the climate by helping to save the world’s remaining tropical forests. These vast tracts of trees are often called the ‘lungs of the planet.’ Their foliage draws in the carbon dioxide that causes global warming and converts it to oxygen. Rainforests are home to approximately half of the world’s plant, animal and insect species, including countless types of butterflies. Tropical forests are also a habitat for butterfly farmers. Under net enclosures hung behind small wooden huts in rainforests ringing the earth’s equator, rural residents are ‘harvesting’ crops of butterflies instead of chopping down trees to make a living. And every acre counts, because more than one tree has already fallen in the
