Of butterflies, birds, and bees: one program that understands the links among education, economic opportunity, and population.

• Author: Orimbo, Bernard O.
• Position: POPULATION FORUM - Wafula launched butterfly farming enterprise with help from the Kakamega Environmental Education Program

Before his fellow villagers understood what he was up to, they called Wafula "the moneyed mad man"--"moneyed" because he had enrolled his daughters in secondary school rather than send them off to hard labor in the nearby Kakamega Forest; and "mad" because every day he could be seen running around with a butterfly net while other men logged and farmed and the women collected firewood.

Eventually it turned out that Wafula wasn't so mad after all, but it took a while for this truth to emerge. Wafula's concerned neighbors actually complained about him to the village elders, who considered the matter and recommended a cleansing ritual to heal his madness. Without cleansing, they said, his weird behavior would only continue, thus causing more failed rains, further climate change and environmental degradation, depletion of the forest cover, and disease outbreaks, among other ills.

Shocked, Wafula asked for a hearing. In what had by now become a community meeting in the chief's yard, Wafula said that it is encroachment on the Kakamega Forest that has resulted in over 50-percent depletion of the precious forest cover in the past 25 years. He also explained that over-exploitation of the forest resources for food, herbal medicines, firewood, and timber to construct houses was rapidly diminishing forest resources and destroying other forms of biodiversity and water catchments.

The elders were not convinced. "You have given a good scientific presentation," they said, "but we still think you're crazy." People nodded their heads; Wafula's madness was clear on the facts: running around the forest with a net and sending his daughters to secondary school rather than marrying them off, the normal thing to do. And where did he get the money?

"I am not mad," he said. "I farm butterflies."

"What?!" came the thunderous response. "But butterflies are Nature's children's playthings!"

"Yes, I mean butterflies," said Wafula, "those large and small insects with bright, multi-colored wings that children chase around excitedly." It was a teachable moment. He went on to explain, to a suddenly quiet and attentive crowd, about feeding caterpillars and breeding butterfly pupae for sale to butterfly houses, exhibitors, museums, and up-market consumers in Nairobi and Mombasa. That's where the money came from; that's how he could educate his daughters.

Health and Livelihood

Wafula launched his butterfly farming enterprise with help from the Kakamega Environmental Education...