‘It’s hard to be satisfied with just one’: What’s driving the black market for butterflies in Asia?

TOKYO and SOUTH SULAWESI: At the Tefuya pub in Tokyo, which has been around for over 40 years, owner Kiyomi Kakizawa serves up more than booze and food.Over the years, the pub has become a draw for butterfly enthusiasts and collectors, who gather to pore over maps, admire the multicoloured specimens from all over the world and add some to their collections through convivial auctions.

It is a hobby that, for many, stems from childhood. “In the past, the homework for summer vacation was often insect collecting. We had to bring insects that we’d collected … to school and research them,” Hase said.There are about 17,500 butterfly species in the world. And threats to their survival include habitat loss, intensive agricultural practices such as pesticide use, and climate change. In Singapore, nearly half of the butterfly species have disappeared.

Documentary film-maker Arfan Sabran, who was also the Undercover Asia episode’s researcher, remembers his first trip to the park as a child. “My first reaction was definitely like all the other children: ‘Wow, so beautiful,’” he said. The dead butterflies could be mounted in glass-topped frames as colourful souvenirs. They could also be folded and slotted into folded glassine sheets, then sent to collectors.

He is driven to make his collection of various species as complete as possible by, for example, obtaining a rare female of a particular species. Some butterfly species are sexually dimorphic, which means the males and females differ in size, shape and colour.

“The system is very, very dependent on documents like permits. And it’ll depend on the diligence of the enforcement officer, who’s going through hundreds of parcels, to find a document that may have been falsified.” This applies to insects that produce numerous offspring and contribute few resources to each offspring.

Sociopsychological aspects of butterfly souvenir purchasing behaviour at Bantimurung Bulusaraung National Park in IndonesiaThe researchers recommended careful management plans, such as identifying butterfly species that need immediate protection and communicating this to visitors through announcements, banners and other materials.

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