Tourists' millions elude the poor locals' nets

Oct 15 2010
BEN DOHERTY
SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA
Mail & Guardian (South Africa)

Boa is 19, the sixth of 11 children. With all of his family, he lives in a small thatched two-room house on the outskirts of Siem Reap.

Three mornings a week, he and his siblings, with a gaggle of children from his ramshackle suburb, walk to the neighbouring forest carrying makeshift nets fashioned from long branches, wire and plastic bags. They go to catch butterflies.

"We have to catch butterflies to sell because we are a poor family. We have no money. The money we make is to help the family, for food and to go to school. Without this, we cannot go to school," Boa said through an interpreter.

The butterflies they catch -- usually between 60 and 100 between them -- are taken to the Butterflies Garden restaurant in Siem Reap town.
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