Tanzania: To Save Rare Forest, Farmers Try a New Crop - Butterflies

The colourful butterflies fluttering through Zanzibar's Jozani forest are beautiful to look at, but for farmers and charcoal producers in the region, they mean something more: a paycheck.

In an effort to protect the island's threatened forest, local people are being trained to rear butterflies, under a scheme that tries to prevent deforestation by giving people a financial stake in keeping the forest intact.

Jozani forest, which lies between the mangrove-filled bays of Chwaka and Uzi on Unguja Island, is a large mature woodlands that is home to an array of endangered species, including the colourful Red colobus monkey.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201512301197.html

Vincent Brassine

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