Social media video featuring the project.
Chulumani - Un Paraiso de Mariposas
Stephen Taranto
Other projects
The aim of the project is to develop the Tarapari Biodiversity Garden as a Butterfly Education and Conservation Resource Center to support butterfly appreciation and pride in the South Yungas region.
A beautiful Dusky Tiger butterfly sunning itself at Tarapari Biodiversity Garden, May 2012. © Tarapari.
The Cloud Forests of the eastern slopes of the Bolivian Andes (see map) are habitat for more than 1500species of butterflies, many of them endemic to the region. The South Yungas region where Tarapari Biodiversity Garden is located is one of the most heavily impacted areas in terms of habitat fragmentation and degradation and increasing use of pesticides for controlling the Ullu (Eloria noyesi), a moth that eats the tips of budding coca leaves, the most important agricultural crop of the Yungas.
Butterflies are charismatic animals, attractive to people from all sectors of society and an effective focus for biodiversity conservation education programs for children and adults. Based on experiences over the past three years receiving groups of schoolchildren and tourists, the Tarapari Biodiversity Garden has decided to increase its focus on conservation and environmental education programs for butterflies. A RSG Booster Grant will permit us to develop a butterfly conservation and education center for the South Yungas region.
Tarapari will dedicate a room in the Biodiversity Museum to butterflies, develop and offer a wide array of educational programs on site, in schools, in La Paz and through radio programs. In this way, we will continue to be a presence for conservation in the region. We also plan to continue sponsoring education programs and other activities in the community of Chulumani, such as the mural painting and field trips to the garden that Rufford funds have partially supported in the past.
In addition, in 2012 Tarapari will be hosting two of Bolivia’s foremost butterfly specialists who are in conducting research throughout Bolivia for the publication of a field guide to Bolivia’s butterflies. Their presence at Tarapari will create an opportunity to develop programs and infrastructure improvements to the museum and garden that will strengthen our capacity to support biodiversity conservation in the Yungas.