Butterfly Farming in the East Usambara Mountains - Eastern Arc ...

Responsibilities
• Farming native butterflies using proper farming techniques
• Dividing work evenly amongst members
• Dividing earnings evenly amongst members
• Communicating needs and ideas to the executive committee of the Amani Butterfly
Project Group
Funding
• 65% of Butterfly Sales. This percentage will increase as sales increase, since project
running costs are mostly fixed regardless of total sales. Currently, it is expected that the
average butterfly farmer can expect and extra 135,000 TSH per year from butterfly
farming.
1.3 Infrastructure and Startup Funding
The project’s current infrastructure consists of the following items.
• A half-acre plot in the village of Shebomeza where electricity and phone are available.
• An office building with an office, workroom, storeroom, toilets, and a 5000-liter water
storage tank.
• A 8x12 meter live exhibit
• A tourist/meeting banda
• A 185XL Honda Motorcycle
• A research cage
• A research seedling nursery
The Amani Butterfly Project has received generous support from the District of Muheza, UNDP,
the Diplomatic Spouses Group, the African Rainforest Conservancy, and some private donors.
• The project’s office was completed with 5,250,000 TSH from the District of Muheza in
July of 2003 and an additional meeting room will likely be added with additional support
from the district in the near future.
• Butterfly Farming Groups have contributed 15,000 TSH each for the costs of the
executive committee representing the farmers, and have contributed over a thousand
buckets of sand for building the project office.
• The UNDP has recently approved an award of nearly $24,000 USD that will serve as
working capital for the project when it begins purchasing butterfly pupae from the
farmers. The organization also approved $5950 USD was approved for technical support
and research for the project through the first market season.
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