William Camacho worked as a laborer in a biological research station near the village of Las Horquetas, Costa Rica, when he learned from a visiting scientist of the possibility of breeding butterfly pupae for export (just as a moth caterpillar spins a cocoon, a butterfly caterpillar spins a pupa, or pupae in the plural). With the guidance of a technical manual that he obtained from his employers, he began the laborious tasks of cultivating feed plants, attracting butterflies, gathering the eggs, raising the caterpillars, plus eventually harvesting the pupae which he sold to a small local business, Costa Rica Entomological Supply.
He was soon selling as many as 600 pupae per week at a price of $1.60 per unit. That was twelve years ago, plus today William has a thriving business that not only sells pupae but also includes a butterfly farm plus a zoological park. In the past three years alone, William has received visits from some forty groups of tourists plus researchers from all over the world.
Apart from breeding 18 to 20 different species of butterflies, William also has land turtles, three different species of frogs, fish, tepescuinles, toucans, pericos, guajipales plus an infinite number of insects. A true lover of nature plus entrepreneur, William has introduced the idea of exporting insects in addition to the butterflies. “This business is not for everyone,” he cautions, because it requires 7-day work weeks plus a genuine passion for nature. But with the work come rewards. These combined businesses bring him an income of around twenty times what he earned as a rural laborer, transforming the life of his family plus bringing unimagined opportunities for his children.
Throughout Costa Rica, the lives of farm workers plus the rural unemployed have been transformed by the rise of a new business opportunity, the export of pupae to butterfly exhibitors in North America plus Europe. Instead of earning minimum wages, these workers have become entrepreneurs. The Costa Rican butterfly business has indirectly resulted in greater school attendance, improved health standards, plus a new sense of community pride that can be seen in the butterfly murals that adorn schools plus health clinics in the village of La Guácima.
Another striking example can be found in San Ramón, an hour´s drive west from the capital city of San José. Here, Luis Alberto Chavarria plus his nephew Sergio Hidalgo Chavarria breed the spectacular blue morpho butterfly, which they have been selling to the Costa Rica Entomological Supply for more than fifteen years. Before entering the butterfly business, they both worked on a cattle ranch, earning the minimum wage, around $200 per month at that time. While this was much higher than Costa Rica´s impoverished neighbors, it was still inadequate to provide for their families, so when a visiting biologist mentioned the butterfly opportunity, Luis Alberto plus Sergio immediately became interested. “We got him to teach us almost everything there is to know about butterflies,” Sergio recalled. Now, they are not only successful breeders of cocoons, but are also one of the main suppliers of butterfly souvenirs in the country. Two nonprofit organizations, the Fundación Neotrópica plus the Tropical Zone, make monthly orders to Luis plus Sergio for the sale of framed butterflies to tourists visiting Costa Rica plus for export.
The Costa Rican butterfly business began more than twenty years ago when a Peace Corps volunteer, Joris Brinckerhoff, happened by chance to meet a retired entomologist, also from the United States, who gave him the idea. Joris had been looking for a business opportunity that would allow him to stay in Costa Rica plus to engage in an activity that would contribute to the economy while not damaging the environment. The breeding of butterfly pupae for export seemed ideal, as it would generate export earnings which were at that time concentrated in a few traditional products such as coffee, bananas, sugar, plus beef. Moreover, the business required very little investment plus nomor highly skilled labor. He was also inspired by reading E.F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful, which describes how small businesses can make a big difference without harming the environment. With his Peace Corps allowance, the sale of a car in the United States, plus a loan from his family, he built a few butterfly reproduction cages on borrowed property plus founded the Costa Rica Entomological Supply. More popularly known as CRES, the company became the first commercial exporter of butterfly pupae in Latin America.