Translate page with Google

Project January 14, 2025

The Threatened Delicate Guardian of Eastern Indonesia

Country:

Authors:

Massive poaching, complex regulation, deforestation, and mining expansion threatens the preservation of the endemic Ornithopthera (birdwing butterflies) in the Maluku Islands and Papua. Despite its protected status, this broad-winged butterfly is often found to be one of the top-selling items amongst illegal traders—many were exported illegally from Indonesia to many countries.

While popularly known for its beauty, this butterfly actually has a crucial ecological role as a pollinator and co-evolutionary role with species of plants and other animals in the food chain. Indonesia's development ambitions have sidelined the work of scientists, resulting in insufficient data on the population and sustainability of this endemic butterfly. Amidst all these gloomy circumstances, a lepidoptera expert in Jayapura, Papua, made a personal effort to carry out conservation in his home garden.

Working together with entomologist, Garda Mastra, journalist Titah AW and photographer Kurniadi Widodo wanted to create a story that sheds light on the fact that illegal trade does not only occur to large animals (such as tigers, elephants, rhinos, large birds), but also to insects and other small animals–which, perhaps because of their size, are often underestimated or go unnoticed.

This project addresses the following questions: Why is it important to protect butterflies from extinction? How is the conservation effort on preserving this delicate species?

RELATED INITIATIVES

yellow halftone illustration of a logging truck holding logs

Initiative

Rainforest Reporting

Rainforest Reporting

RELATED TOPICS

yellow halftone illustration of an elephant

Topic

Environment and Climate Change

Environment and Climate Change
a yellow halftone illustration of a truck holding logs

Topic

Rainforests

Rainforests
yellow halftone illustration of two construction workers moving a wheelbarrow of dirt

Topic

Extractive Industries

Extractive Industries