Located along the Northern Coast of Kenya is the Arabuko Sokoke forest. The forest is the largest indigenous coastal forest left in Eastern  Africa and is a treasure trove of endemic plants and animals; the last stronghold for many plants and forests  The forest used to run all the way from southern Somalia down to Mozambique and now only covers 420 square kilometers. Nonetheless, it is recognized internationally as an important bird area and a global biodiversity hotspot.  Arabuko Sokoke is home to 230 species of recorded bird some of which are endemic, 52 species of mammal and a whopping 600 species of plants and trees and also home to about 263 butterfly species.  However, the survival of the forest and its rich biodiversity for a long time was under threat from local people due to unrelenting logging that placed the indigenous trees and the delicate ecosystems that thrive within it on the cuffs of extinction.

Kipepeo Project

Kipepeo which is butterfly in Swahili is a community based butterfly farming project started in 1993. The project was designed to change the local attitude and hence appreciation of the forest by giving them a stake in its conservation through butterfly farming. The Kipepeo project served to engage the locals, who depended on the logging as a means of making a livelihood, in the preservation of the Arabuko Sokoke forest. The forest is the source of the butterflies and butterfly eggs.  Farmers harvest the eggs sustainably and look after them until they pupate. Scientists at the National Museums of Kenya Centre for Biodiversity which is part of the Kipepeo project carry out monthly training with farmers on how to sustainably harvest the butterflies and at the same time ensure they do not interfere with their populations out in the wild. Because the results of butterfly farming depend on the continued presence of the forest habitat, butterfly farmers experience a daily and compelling linkage between their livelihood and forest conservation. The farmers now don’t have to cut down the trees the attitude towards conservation is changing.