By Husein Ali Zorkot
Around this time last year, I witnessed for the first time a plain tiger butterfly (Danaus chrysippus), also known as the African queen, gracefully flitting from wildflower to wildflower. This butterfly—featured in our guidebook Butterfly Gardening in Lebanon—has since become the emblem of our butterfly garden and a testament to our hard work in creating a sustainable, wildlife-friendly environment. True appreciation for nature conservation comes only when you experience nature firsthand, integrating plants and animals into your daily life. For the past year, I, as a lepidopterist and field biologist, have had the privilege of living among Lebanon’s native wildlife—especially butterflies, my colorful daytime companions.
From a modest pinewood cabin that now serves as my office, library, studio, and ticket booth, I have dedicated myself to studying, painting, compiling, gardening, and managing the butterfly garden. Although the tasks have been arduous and at times overwhelming since our last annual report in 2018, the outcomes are promising and worthwhile. In just one year, we transformed an almond grove into a sustainable butterfly garden and international park featuring nature trails, nearly 270 trees, over 160 species of native plants, a greenhouse, a nursery, and an environmental centre. Our garden now supports a higher diversity of native plants, insects, and other animals, with a growing number of butterfly species recorded since last summer.
During the mild autumn months of 2018, we focused on planting wildflowers along the trails and harvesting wild seeds as part of our Lebanon Native Plant Seedbank (LNPS). Thousands of seeds from hundreds of native species were collected between September and December for winter sowing. Additionally, we planted forty-five native trees and shrubs throughout the garden and installed a water irrigation system in November—comprising over 2,100 metres of driplines and hoses—to meet the needs of our expanding plant community. We also acquired essential gardening tools and equipment, and constructed a warehouse with a workbench inside the greenhouse.
Winter brought harsh conditions with successive hurricanes, high winds, and snowstorms. Fortunately, our location in the Bekaa benefitted from a combination of good fortune and swift action. Our pre-installed snow plan—including indoor greenhouse heaters and a strategically placed water hose along the roof to melt ice—proved essential. I vividly recall donning my raincoat and rushing to the greenhouse at the first sign of snow, sometimes in the middle of the night, to prevent structural damage from the weight of accumulating snow.
During winter, we sown the harvested seeds in the greenhouse—planting the first batch of approximately fifty thousand seeds in December, followed by a similar batch in February. In December, we also conducted the first in a series of ecological training sessions for Syrian migrants and refugees, teaching proper methods of collecting and harvesting wild plants. In January and February, we pruned the fruit trees and planted a living fence. By March, we began acclimatizing young plants in the garden as early spring arrived.
A standout moment of 2019 was the phenomenal butterfly migration witnessed in March. Billions of butterflies journeyed through Lebanon along their seasonal route between tropical Africa and temperate Europe—a migration that the region had not seen in over a century, spurred by heavy rains that boosted butterfly populations and competitive pressures for food.
April was marked by extensive spring planting, trail maintenance, and cleaning. The butterfly garden officially opened in mid-April as construction began on the environmental centre. We had the pleasure of hosting an international volunteer who joined our gardening team in collecting hundreds—if not thousands—of native wild plants from nearby hima locations, relocating them to the garden. This volunteer also helped paint our garden welcome mural, capturing the dazzling essence of a springtime butterfly garden with vibrant butterflies, busy bees, blooming wildflowers, sunshine, blue skies, and a rainbow.
Since June, we have been monitoring butterflies and other insects, along with reptiles, birds, and plants. This ongoing project is part of a long-term study on both slopes of the Shouf Biosphere Reserve, in collaboration with several local and international institutions and volunteers. Our butterfly monitoring will eventually evolve into a nationwide effort covering all 25 hima locations and approximately 20 established nature reserves. The goal is to publish an atlas of national butterfly distributions that examines the impacts of climate, habitat, phytogeography, land use, management practices, and environmental pressures—guiding conservationists and informing national management guidelines.
In parallel, I have been continuously developing the website LEPIDOPTERA LIBANOTICA/Butterflies and Moths of Lebanon (http://butterflies.spnl.org), the first authoritative online resource on the lepidopterans of Lebanon and the Levant. Since November 2018, I have been regularly uploading detailed, illustrated pages on all 165 species of butterflies, a complete checklist of roughly one thousand species of Levantine moths, and individual pages on sphinx moths, zygaenids, and about fifty species of dragonflies and damselflies. The website also hosts the Lebanon Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (LBMS)—the country’s dedicated butterfly monitoring program—complete with volunteer training materials, resources, and online tools that simplify and enhance monitoring efforts. A built-in blog, the DANAUS Butterfly Blog, features daily posts on garden stories, news, events, and butterfly sightings, supporting conservation through education, awareness, and access to scientific material.
Exciting upcoming projects include the publication of A Butterfly Beauty, a colorful children’s storybook on metamorphosis, scheduled for release in September, along with Butterflies and Wildflowers of Lebanon Colouring Book, A Pocket Guide to Lebanese Medicinal Plants, Wood Fairies and Flying Wildflowers (a calendar), and several posters and brochures for our Homat al Hima Gift Shop. The long-awaited herpetologist’s lexicon, A Guide to the Amphibians of Lebanon and the Middle East, will also be published this autumn.
In August, we constructed a summer wildflower nursery—an outdoor extension of our gift shop—adjacent to the greenhouse. Here, visitors can purchase living plants, organic products, and garden décor. Whether it’s a butterfly plant or a nectar feeder, we hope our guests will be inspired to start their own gardens. Proceeds from the nursery, admissions, and gift shop sales help fund garden projects and support local employees, Syrian refugees, and their families. Additionally, we are engineering a walk-through botanical garden in the greenhouse, complete with native trees, shrubs, vines, herbs, blooms, a lepidopterarium exhibit display, water fountains, a pond, and soothing nature sounds. Construction on the environmental centre is set for completion by mid-September, with the international park—featuring the butterfly garden, herpetarium, and aviary—opening soon thereafter.
Our butterfly garden is a complete green landscape featuring numerous eco-friendly elements such as bioswales, mounds, stone piles, stumperies, living hedges, grass meadows, arbours, vertical planters, and wildlife ponds. This sustainable, conservation-oriented garden promotes efficient water and space usage, recycling, composting, rainwater harvesting, haymaking, beekeeping, permaculture, and aesthetic enjoyment—all achieved without harmful agrochemicals such as pesticides, herbicides, or synthetic fertilizers. We also sponsor educational programs and training workshops that promote positive environmental activities like bird watching and butterfly watching, in contrast to destructive practices such as irresponsible hunting or netting.
I cannot overstate the ecological importance of butterflies. Through our websites, books, and printed materials, we strive to communicate that these colorful, gentle creatures are vital pollinators and bioindicators. Without butterflies, many of the wildflowers we cherish would fail to propagate, and we would lose critical insights into the health and stressors of our environment. Educating farmers and the younger generation on the importance of butterflies—and on organic, responsible gardening and farming practices—can help address many of the current challenges threatening butterfly conservation, including habitat loss, fragmentation, degradation, deforestation, agricultural intensification, urbanization, overgrazing, and overcollecting of medicinal plants (many of which serve as host plants). Establishing butterfly gardens at residences, businesses, institutions, or parks—especially when done on a large scale—provides butterflies with the food and resources they need to thrive. This is a major objective of our butterfly garden: to educate the public and inspire a nationwide movement to conserve Lebanon’s butterfly and biodiversity heritage for generations to come. Conserving Lebanon’s butterflies contributes to the global effort to preserve these essential creatures because without them, there would be no plants—and without plants, there would be no environment.
