The "butterfly transformation" of Butterfly Valley

Source: People's Daily - People's Daily

Picture (1): Under the soft sunlight, a group of golden arrow-ringed butterflies fall like petals flying in the sky. Photo by Zeng Zhizhi (People's Vision) Figure (2): The terraced scenery of Maandi Township. The terraced fields in the Maandi Township area are an important part of the World Heritage Site Honghe Hani Rice Terraces. Photo by Liu Jiazhu (People's Vision) Photo (3): Yang Zhenwen, director of the Butterfly Museum in the Honghe Butterfly Valley in China, observing butterflies. Photo by Li Jiaxian (Photo China) Photo (4): Huangshuai butterfly inhabiting a bamboo forest. Picture (5): Musk butterfly resting on petals. Fig. (6): Pintail butterfly resting on the ground (left) and large two-tailed butterfly (right). Figures (4) to (6) are all photographed by Liu Jiazhu (People's Vision) Picture (7): Eagle spotted butterflies foraging among flowers. Photo by Liu Yi (People's Vision)

On June 5th, the Butterfly Branch of the Chinese Entomological Society held a medal awarding ceremony for the "Hometown of Chinese Butterflies" in Jinping Miao Yao Dai Autonomous County, Yunnan Province. This award fully affirms the unique biodiversity resources of "China Red River Butterfly Valley" in Maandi Township, Jinping, marking an important moment in the conservation and development of Butterfly Valley, and laying the foundation for Maandi Township to become a scientific research destination and a world-class eco-tourism destination.

In recent years, Jinping has adhered to the concept of ecological civilization of ecological priority and protection priority, regarded the conservation of biodiversity in the Butterfly Valley as an important task to comprehensively strengthen ecological environmental protection, and built a full-cycle butterfly breeding ecosystem based on the protection of biological resources and ecological resources. At the same time, we have given full play to our comparative advantages, done a good job in the "big article" of cultural and tourism integration, and embarked on a "butterfly change" road of harmonious coexistence between man and nature.

Grass in the forest, valley streams, countless butterflies dancing. In summer, Maandi Township, Jinping, Miao, Yao and Dai Autonomous County, Yunnan Province, is a sea of butterflies.

This "butterfly gathering" is staged every year from May to June, when hundreds of millions of butterflies emerge from their cocoons to form the spectacle of the "big explosion". There are about 20,000 species of butterflies recorded in the world, about 2,100 species on the mainland, and the "China Red River Butterfly Valley" located in Maandi Township, Jinping, has more than 320 species, which is one of the richest areas in the world with butterfly populations and butterfly resources.

It is understood that the number of butterflies concentrated this year will be 80 million to 100 million. The best viewing spots are located in Majiatang Forest Area, Pujiazhai Forest Area, Niuchangping Forest Area and Yingpanshan Forest Area in Maandi Township, and the best viewing time is from May 20 to June 25.

How did the natural wonders of Butterfly Valley come about?

The vast forest sea attracts butterfly dances

Sunlight shines through the secluded bamboo forest and shines on a meadow in the forest. A group of golden-yellow arrow-ringed butterflies gathered here, and butterflies flew in one after another, forming a golden yellow pattern on the grass. Suddenly, a large bird spread its wings and fluttered its wings, carrying the sound of the wind over the flock of butterflies.

The golden yellow pattern on the ground disappeared, and hundreds of arrow-ring butterflies suddenly scattered. Under the soft light of the setting sun, the butterflies are like petals flying in the sky, scattering among the dense forests.

"If you don't see it with your own eyes, such a scene would only appear in a dream." After more than 20 years, whenever I think of the scene I saw for the first time in the bamboo forest in Maandi Township in 1998, Liu Jiazhu, a butterfly expert at Southwest Forestry University, still can't hide his excitement: one butterfly after another broke into the camera, and butterflies fluttered in the sky.

The average annual temperature in Maandi Township is about 18 degrees Celsius, the climate is mild, the rainfall is abundant, and the suitable climate has bred more than 40,000 mu of leafy bamboo forest. Liu Jiazhu, who had come to conduct forestry surveys, accidentally found a large number of butterflies inhabiting here. After that, many experts and scholars came to admire, and the Butterfly Valley was unveiled and presented to the world.

Why is the natural wonder of a butterfly "big explosion" formed in Saddleback Township? Yang Zhenwen, director of the Butterfly Museum in China's Honghe Butterfly Valley, told reporters that the superior ecological environment in the Butterfly Valley provides good conditions for the breeding of a variety of butterflies. Maandi Township is located in the mountainous area, the terrain is complex, high in the southwest, low in the northeast, with ravines and ravines, the highest altitude in the territory of Wutai Mountain is as high as 3012 meters, the lowest altitude is only 130 meters, and the forest coverage rate is 70%. The average annual rainfall is 2500 mm, rainy and foggy all year round, warm and humid, belongs to the southern edge of the northern tropics and the southern tropical climate, the three-dimensional climate characteristics are more obvious, and has the reputation of "one mountain divided into four seasons, ten miles of different days". The northwest is the watershed national nature reserve, rich in forest resources and extremely complete in biodiversity preservation, known as the "natural gene pool". Because Maandi Township has many vegetation types such as mountain rainforest and monsoon evergreen broad-leaved forest, it has an ecological environment suitable for the survival of butterflies. The vast forest sea provides an adequate food source for butterfly larvae, and finally forms butterfly resources mainly based on arrow-ringed butterflies, supplemented by phoenix-eyed butterflies, dead leaf butterflies, and beautiful phoenix butterflies.

Will the butterfly "big explosion" upset the ecological balance? In response to reporters' questions, Yang Zhenwen explained that the existing forest area in Maandi Township can accommodate up to about 1 billion butterflies, while the number of butterflies in Maandi Township has remained stable at about 100 million in recent years.

Why is the protection of butterflies included in the villagers' convention?

Cherishing nature becomes a conscious act

At 8 a.m., Yang Zhenwen changed into a camouflage uniform, put on a backpack, carried a large bucket, and headed for the Pujiazhai butterfly observation point 5 kilometers away. Walking on the road, some villagers greeted him warmly: "Into the mountains to feed butterflies again!"

In 1998, Yang Zhenwen joined the local forestry station and has been observing, monitoring and protecting butterflies for 25 years. The life of a butterfly needs to go through four stages: egg, larvae, pupae and adult. Its natural predators are found throughout the growing season, butterfly eggs are devoured by ants, and larvae are considered delicious by wasps, frogs and birds. The butterflies dancing in front of people's eyes have undergone the test of nature.

The test doesn't just come from nature. Yang Zhenwen remembers that at first, local villagers saw a large number of butterflies and worried that butterflies would affect the growth of crops, so they once went to kill butterflies. There are also merchants who come to Saddleback Township to buy butterflies in large quantities to make specimens for commercial use.

Butterflies play an important role in ecosystems as pollinators of plants, food sources for other animals, and indicators of biodiversity. "Because butterflies are extremely sensitive to environmental change and habitat loss, they can serve as an indicator of environmental health and ecosystem stability. The greater the number of butterflies, the healthier the ecosystem. Li Xueyan, an associate researcher at the Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said butterflies play an important role in ecosystem restoration, providing pollination and food sources. An increase in butterfly populations may indicate an increase in plant diversity and other pollinator populations in the restored area.

In recent years, Jinping has formulated and promulgated the regulations on the protection and management of Butterfly Valley in Maandi Township, established a special agency for the management of Butterfly Valley, increased the education of the public's awareness of ecological protection, and ensured the growth environment and living space of butterflies to the greatest extent.

"Protecting forests, protecting water sources, and protecting butterflies has been written into the villagers' conventions of all villages in Maandi Township, and it has become a conscious act of people." Yang Zhenwen said.

How can abundant resources change the face of the countryside?

Cultural and tourism integration helps "turn cocoons into butterflies"

Yunnan is extremely rich in butterfly diversity resources. Not long ago, through the study of the diversity of Yunnan butterfly species, the research team of the Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, completed the Yunnan butterfly directory, which included a total of 1300 species of Yunnan butterflies in 356 genera in 6 families, and reported 2 new Chinese butterfly record genera, 18 new Chinese record species and 36 new record species in Yunnan.

Carrying out eco-tourism, popular science research, and exploring new paths for conservation and development can make butterflies better accessible to the public.

On May 18th, the Butterfly Museum of Honghe Butterfly Valley in China was officially opened and opened to the public free of charge. In fact, as early as 2010, the Maandi Township Cultural Station built a butterfly herbarium, which was later renamed the Butterfly Science and Technology Museum, and was rated as a "provincial science education base" in 2018. In order to meet the development needs of scientific research and eco-tourism, in August 2022, Jinping upgraded the Butterfly Science and Technology Museum and built the Butterfly Museum in the Honghe Butterfly Valley of China.

"When the museum first opened in 2010, there were only more than 20 kinds of specimens, but now the museum has a collection of more than 270 butterfly specimens, all of which are butterflies in the Butterfly Valley." "As a next step, we will continue to conduct surveys to show as much biodiversity as possible in Butterfly Valley," Yang said. ”

Butterflies flutter to attract visitors. Relying on abundant butterfly resources, Jinping has built a butterfly tourism eco-tourism industry, and the construction of local infrastructure has also made great progress.

Wang Yanchun, a butterfly photographer from Anshan, Liaoning Province, took a day's drive from Kunming to Maandi Township when he first came to Butterfly Valley in 2011 to shoot. There are no hotels or hotels in the township, and Wang Yanchun can only borrow a utility room from a villager's house.

"Now there are many homestays and farmhouses in the township, and the roads are well built, and it takes five hours to come from Kunming, which is much more convenient than before." The problem of food, housing and transportation has been solved, Wang Yanchun has no worries, and this year he came to Butterfly Valley, he plans to squat here for a week to shoot butterflies.

Since opening to the public in 2010, Butterfly Valley has welcomed nearly 1.9 million visitors. The Butterfly Valley Arts Festival held on May 20 this year attracted more than 50,000 people.

With the arrival of a large number of tourists, the economic income of the local villagers has also increased. Yang Zhenwen, who now also serves as the first secretary of the rural revitalization task force of the Maqiutang Village Committee in Maandi Township, told reporters that today, the village has built a butterfly viewing landscape road, as well as a butterfly seed source breeding base with butterfly release, butterfly sightseeing and butterfly science popularization. The villagers spontaneously set up a colorful butterfly professional cooperative to carry out butterfly breeding and cultural and creative product research and development. In Maandi Township, more and more local people rely on butterfly-related industries to increase their income.

From untouched border villages to famous butterfly viewing spots, the story of "turning into a butterfly" is played out in butterflies and the people who protect them.

People's Daily (Version 06, 24 June 2023)