- The Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture re-launches its website. And also the Global Livestock Production and Health Atlas (GLiPHA). Must be an FAO thing.
- “We are grateful to the governments who have made voluntary contributions to make this possible,” said Dr Shakeel Bhatti, Secretary of the Treaty’s Governing Body.
- Bighorn sheep at risk from climate change, computer says.
- The changing face of Japanese agriculture.
- “We are blurring natural boundaries: forests are no longer forests, meadows are no longer meadows. We have lost sight of eternity and infinity and are destroying nature for future generations.”
- Pope name-checks Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
Kenyan butterfly farmers flying high
The Kenya Forest Service is one of the forces behind butterfly farming projects around the country. According to the latest KFS annual report (which I found out about from ASNS), household incomes have really benefited from the project, mostly by exporting butterfly pupae to collectors and butterfly farms abroad, mostly in the United States and the United Kingdom. The report, launched last week, says: ((I have been unable to find it on the web; please help.))
The butterfly farming project based at Arabuko-Sokoke forests is one of the various initiatives aimed at involving forest adjacent communities in conservation through sustainable utilization of forest resources to improve livelihoods. The community appreciates the role that the project has played in the improvement of their household income and the positive contribution impacted towards conservation and management of the forest.
We’ve written about butterfly and silk farming in Africa before and it is good to know that these projects do seem to be working. The primary impact is to preserve the forest, by giving local villagers an incentive to keep it intact as a new source of income. Digging around a bit, I found some more useful resources. David Ngala at Wildlife Direct had a post about the Kipepeo project, which links to the project’s own web site. All very worthwhile.
Photo, of Papilio demodocus, by Matt and Kim Rudge, used under a Creative Commons license.
Nibbles: Prickly pear, Corridors, Nutrition, Backyard chickens, SW agriculture, Non-wood forest products, Mexican ungulates, Chinese sheep
- How to make a cordial from tuna. No, not the fish.
- Looking beyond the borders of protected areas.
- NY Times op-ed on “hidden hunger.”
- Google reveals backyard chicken coop bubble in US.
- 3000-year-old irrigation system found in Arizona.
- New NWFP-Digest out.
- An overview of ungulate conservation in Mexico.
- Protected wolves threaten sheep flocks in China.
Nibbles: Sacred sites, Pollan, Atlas of Food, Bison, Urban trees
- Sacred places conserve biodiversity.
- Amy Goodman interviews Michael Pollan.
- Mapping food.
- Bringing back the prairie.
- Urban forestry in Toronto.