Butterfly Census: Quantifying Monarchs and More
In the heart of the Amazon Rainforest, Yasuni National Park, located in the biodiverse country of Ecuador, is considered one of the most diverse places on Earth. This pristine haven is home to an estimated 80% of all animal species, many of which are still unnamed. However, the park faces numerous threats, including climate change, deforestation, development, and illegal logging.
Recognising the importance of conservation and the role of local people, a study published in February in the journal Insect Conservation and Diversity aimed to understand the diversity and number of insects in Yasuni National Park. As a starting point, the study focused on butterflies, due to their sensitivity to changes in their natural environment and their relatively well-studied nature.
The long-term monitoring system, designed to be cost-effective, sustainable, and rely on local people for data collection, trained park rangers to identify butterflies. The rangers were 85% accurate with their identifications, providing data for determining key parameters like biodiversity and species richness.
The impact of the project is especially strong on women, who have often stepped up to be leaders in the project. The search results do not provide the names of the authors of the Yasuni National Park study published in February.
Insect-pollinated crops make up over a third of what we eat, including many fruits and spices. The decline in butterfly diversity can allow for dangerous and annoying species to flourish as they fill the roles left behind by disappeared pollinators. This underscores the importance of preserving the park's insect population.
The Tagaeri and Taromenane tribes, living inside Yasuni National Park, are nomadic and move throughout the park, often over oil blocks, to hunt, fish, and gather plants. However, oil drilling has moved closer and closer to the buffer zone where the Tagaeri and Taromenane live, posing a real threat to their extinction.
The government of Ecuador often extracts natural resources without consulting local people, a practice that is detrimental to both the environment and the indigenous communities. Conservationist Checa believes that conservation is only possible when local people are involved. The long-term monitoring system in Yasuni National Park is empowering park rangers, many of whom belong to neighboring Indigenous communities, to understand and protect their forests.
While the study in Yasuni National Park is tracking only butterflies, leaving out all the beetles, ants, leafhoppers, treehoppers, flies, bees, mantises, and dragonflies, it serves as a crucial first step in understanding and preserving the park's insect population. Without knowing how many insects there are, it's hard to get good numbers on the scale of the decline. Nevertheless, the study's findings highlight the need for continued efforts to conserve Yasuni National Park and its diverse insect population.
