Conservation
Friends of Butterflies and the Rainforest Foundation
Founded in 2018
Our History: Friends of Butterflies and the Rainforest Foundation is a non profit partner to The Butterfly Palace. Established in 2018 by The Butterfly Palace to help send more money to butterfly farms in the Rainforest!
Our Vision: To join people to allow butterflies to save the rainforest.
Our Partner: Heliconius Butterfly Works , Butterfly Farm in Ecuador
The foundation spends over $10,000 per year purchasing butterflies from this farm, which helps support the farm so they can carry out their mission of saving the rainforest and creating a sustainable income for local families.
Learn more about our other butterfly farm partners below!
The Butterfly Palace is a for-profit business which imports thousands of butterflies from farms all over the world. The farms rely on the purchase of pupa to carry out their mission of conservation, education and species preservation. Just by visiting the Butterfly Palace, YOU are helping save the rainforest.
Meet the Farms
The Butterfly industry was created as a sustainable way of life for locals in rainforest. Much of the rainforest is being destroyed at a rapid rate. The farms create jobs for locals providing them with a sustainable income that saves the rainforest rather than destroy it. Many of them focus their efforts on conservation, preservation, and education.
Farms allow for butterflies to be raised in a protected environment. Some of the butterflies raised are exported to exhibits like ours around the world, some are kept for breeding, and some are released back into the wild. In the wild a butterfly would have a 7% survival rate whereas in the farm it can be as much as 90%.
Meet the Butterfly Farms
El Bosque Nuevo, Costa Rica
https://www.elbosquenuevo.org/
The farm destines 100% of their profits to acquire rainforest areas for conservation, preservation, reforestation, and research. Located in the small town of Santa Cecilia, the farm began with just 50 hectares and has since grown to 429 hectares of protected land. El Bosque works with 80 families from developing communities to supply them with pupae. Therefore, creating sustainable income.
In the farm the butterflies have a 90% survival rate. In the wild, butterflies have a 7% survival rate. El Bosque releases a percentage of their butterflies back into the wild to support species preservation.
El Bosque has also become a center for research. Students travel from around the world to work with their butterflies.
Entopia by Penang Butterfly Farm, Malaysia
In 1986 David Goh established a tropical butterfly farm as a tourist destination. Entopia exists to fulfill a greater mission in which they have devoted to breeding research. After 30 years the farm has successfully learned to breed over 120 species of butterflies.
Partners of LPS Imports, Distributor
Alas de Colombia, Colombia 2001
Alas de Colombia butterfly farm works with local breeders at no cost to them. Locals bring fruit to the farm to feed the caterpillars and then collect eggs and larvae from the farm, to take home to feeding cages equipped with appropriate host plants to grow in their own nursery gardens. The pupae are then sold to the farm for distribution to butterfly houses around the globe. This generates income, preserves nature, and improves living conditions to rural communities.
To learn more, watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa8Gy6aLv_A
Nature Arc Butterfly Culture, Philippines
To learn more, visit Facebook.com/naturearc
Bioproductores, El Salvador
http://www.butterfliesofelsalvador.com/
Originally a 14-acre farm in 1989, has since grown to 340 acres. Founder, Miguel Serrano set the seeds of what was to be the butterfly farming industry in Central America. Home to a large nature reserve, El Refugio’s conservation efforts have been significant in reducing illegal hunting, fishing, stream poisoning and logging in the area. Learn more by visiting their website!
CRES (SEC), Costa Rica
One family began with a simple blessing of an unclaimed cow. They sold that cow, and with the money they built their first butterfly breeding facility. Through butterfly breeding they have been able to buy land that would have otherwise been chopped down due to paddocks. Today, this land is preserved as “green zones” and protected for many animals to thrive. Each year CRES uses the profits from the sale of their butterflies to buy more land.
Heliconius Works, Ecuador
http://www.heliconiusworks.com/
Heliconius Butterfly Works has been exporting some of the best quality pupae since 1996. The farm specializes in Heliconius species of butterflies. Located in Mindo, Ecaudor the economy used to be based on logging but has since become more geared towards ecotourism. The farm is not open to the public but provides jobs to locals in a way that is compatible with conserving the forest. The farm employs 10 families. To learn more, watch this video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JyRpwJO8NM
Flora Farm, Philippines
To learn more, watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=908-aldgn8w
Green Hills Butterfly Farm, Belize
https://www.greenhillsbelize.com/about/
The family originally set out to purchase a large piece of Rainforest to preserve and protect the habitat for its wildlife. The purchase of the farm not only presented an opportunity to preserve the land but to create a significant number of jobs for locals without have to cut down a single tree!
Quinta de Goulaine, Ecuador
To learn more, visit https://quintadegoulaine.com/
Silke Weyland , Australia
https://www.silkeweyland.com/about-us
Silke is the only distributor of live butterflies in Australia. Her mission is to raise awareness of the decline of butterfly species in the wild and educate the next generation about the importance of butterflies in our ecosystem.