Can Butterflies Save Mexico’s Rain Forest?
(http://www.pacificnews.org/jinn/stories/columns/americas/950919-butterflies.html) A butterfly project in Mexico’s endangered rain forest typifies the small-scale projects designed to create alternatives to cattle ranching and logging. In one poor town deep within the jungle, butterflies have transformed how residents view the jungle. As dusk settles on this town deep in the Mexican jungle, butterflies dance along the river bank and the town erupts in hot pursuit. Moises Vazquez Cruz, 13, stalks the jungle around his family farm. Domitila Santos Flores hunts them with her three daughters. Nicodemus Cruz, a 65-year old corn farmer with aching knees, nabs any butterfly unfortunate enough to land near his home. “The whole town is crazy for butterflies,” says Cruz. “I hope we never run out.” What has captured the town’s imagination is not so much the colorful insects themselves as the cold cash shelled out by biologist Roberto Ruiz who comes each week to buy them. In the last nine months,
