Kipepeo (Swahili language for butterfly) is a community-based enterprise that supports the livelihoods of people living around Arabuko Sokoke forest in coastal Kenya, East Africa; This provides opportunities to interested volunteers to participate in the conservation of a forest with high biodiversity and endemism. Kipepeo seeks to demonstrate the tangible link between conservation and livelihood.
Fostering an increased awareness & better understanding of the natural environment is one of the primary course of Kipepeo project, to achieve this goal the project extension work closely with teachers/students through its multi-faceted environmental education program
Since African butterfly is unique and attracts many clients in other countries, the project currently markets butterfly and moth pupae and other live insects as well as honey and silk cloth produced by the community. The live insects hatched from our pupae are exported and displayed in insect parks globally. As the market place for nature-based products from the Arabuko Sokoke forest, Kipepeo coordinates production, sales and ensures through training and monitoring that the insects are bred and raised on-farm in a sustainable manner from the wild parent stock. The purchase of Kipepeo products contributes directly to the conservation of critical natural heritage for future generations
Since the Kipepeo Project started in 1993 farmers collect the butterfly from the forest and breed them to sell the pupae which are exported to markets in the United States of America the United Kingdom and other European countries.