Butterfly Sanctuaries
Ramsgate Butterfly Sanctuary
The launching of the Ramsgate Butterfly Sanctuary took place in 2001 and was opened to the general public in 2002. In attendance were the media with the following newspapers: Daily News, South Coast Herald, The South Coast Fever, Die Beeld, The Citizen and others; TV in the form of 50/50 and various radio stations, such as East Coast Radio. Throughout the day of the opening – 14th January 2002- the Ramsgate Butterfly Sanctuary was visited by 427 members of the public. The Ramsgate Butterfly Sanctuary ran for a good six years until October, 2008 under the supervision of Conservation of Butterflies in South Africa (CBISA) and the South African Butterfly Breeding Association (SABBA). Through the years of operation it was discovered that the present layout was not suitable for a Butterfly Sanctuary and that the changes that would have to be made would be rather expensive. CBISA and SABBA as a whole were not prepared to invest this kind of capital on leased land. The decision was made to end occupation of the leased land and to acquire land that is more favourable in the same area. All parties concerned agreed and CBISA and SABBA vacated the premises in August 2008. It has since changed hands and its name was changed.
Sun City Butterfly Sanctuary
In April of 2009, CBISA was approached by The Lost World Butterfly House in Sun City to fix the problems they had with their Butterfly House. Unfortunately, they were importing exotic alien butterflies into South Africa. We advised that we would only lend our support should the butterflies they housed only be indigenous to the area. It was agreed to change from exotics to indigenous butterflies, so CBISA went to have a look. The photograph on the left is what we had found. We had found the structure entirely inadequate for its intended propose of housing butterflies and had established that too much money was spent on climate control measures and air-conditioning equipment, none of which did much for the butterflies. The hot house effect is excellent for plants and farming vegetables, but not for our South African butterflies.
It took six months of hard work to change most of the structure to accommodate our local indigenous butterfly species and to refurbish the aesthetics outside the structure to suit the local environment. Butterfly flight paths, waterfalls, dams and streams, indigenous host plants, butterfly territorial hot spots, suitable feeding flowers, a nursery for host plants and the breeding room and tea garden were completed in December of 2009. The photograph on the right will show you what it looked like on its completion. Then started the breeding of the butterflies to be housed in the new Sun City Butterfly Sanctuary. We had also during this period trained some of their staff as tour guides in the breeding programs of butterfly species. As these had come and gone, we had trained new staff periodically from time to time during 2009 to 2011.
New Butterfly Sanctuary design
New plans have been drawn up by CBISA along with the assistance of architects and engineers, incorporating a new design to accommodate what was lacking in the Ramsgate Butterfly Sanctuary and the Sun City Butterfly Sanctuary’s previous designs. These will include a lepidome for butterflies, a craft shop, a wedding co-coordinating and bridal shop, a restaurant, a tea garden, a large indigenous nursery, a breeding room, a pupae room, a conference centre and shops to rent out, a river with coi fish, a volcano setting with an orchid house in the middle and plenty of parking – these are all incorporated in the new design. All in all approximately 1200sqm. During the time from 2009 to 2012 many of the identified problematic areas were ironed out to produce the ultimate Butterfly Sanctuary.
Please feel free to view www.kznbutterflyvalley.co.za for a full scope of the project and how you can get involved.
Kwa-Zulu Natal Butterfly Sanctuary is in the process of planning and development. This always takes time and this website will be updated to let you know when it will be open to the public in the near future.
Eastern Cape Butterfly Sanctuary is in the process of planning. This always takes time and this website will be updated to let you know when it will be open to the public in the near future.
Western Cape Butterfly Sanctuary is in the process of planning. This always takes time and this website will be updated to let you know when it will be open to the public in the near future.
Northern Cape Butterfly Sanctuary is in the process of planning. This always takes time and this website will be updated to let you know when it will be open to the public in the near future.
North West Butterfly Sanctuary is in the process of planning. This always takes time and this website will be updated to let you know when it will be open to the public in the near future.
Limpopo Butterfly Sanctuary is in the process of planning. This always takes time and this website will be updated to let you know when it will be open to the public in the near future.
Free State Butterfly Sanctuary is in the process of planning. This always takes time and this website will be updated to let you know when it will be open to the public in the near future.
Gauteng Butterfly Sanctuary is in the process of planning. This always takes time and this website will be updated to let you know when it will be open to the public in the near future.
Mpumalanga Butterfly Sanctuary is in the process of planning. This always takes time and this website will be updated to let you know when it will be open to the public in the near future.
Members
CBISA invites new individuals who come across this website to become members of this unique Non Profit Company (NPC). The offer is open to you to assist wherever you feel it is within your capability to do so. There is a membership fee of R250 per month. This membership fee allows you to take advantage of this website presented by CBISA, which covers a very wide spectrum of all the existing and future planned projects of CBISA, as well as allowing you some opportunity to become involved in them, should they be of interest to you. A monthly newsletter is automatically provided for your benefit.
Contact Details: Office: Cell: 074 422 5587