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The Queen Alexandra's Birdwing butterfly.
© Australian Museum |
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Isn't this Bad News for Butterflies?
The live and decorative markets use common kinds of butterflies. Specialists, on the other hand, want rarities. A perfect specimen of Queen Alexandra's Birdwing, Ornithoptera alexandrae, arguably the world's most endangered species and found only on the island of Papua New Guinea, could fetch thousands of dollars. Four of these species are now listed on Appendix I on of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and international commercial trade is therefore banned--with a few highly monitored exceptions. (For more information, see "What's CITES?" at the end of this article.) However, undiscriminating bans on collection are often ineffective, and can even do harm by stifling local interest in the insect resource.
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