Live butterfly exhibition is relatively a very young industry compared to other very established ones such as zoos and bird aviaries. Though the first heated glass-house of live butterfly exhibit was set up in 1976 by Mr. David Lowe at Guernsey, Channel Island, it was not popularized until another tropical glass house of live butterfly called The London Butterfly House was opened for public in early 1980 by Mr. Clive Farrell who subsequently has set up a few other houses and also has extended his influence on several people, including me.

    In 1986 March, The Penang Butterfly Farm, presumably the 1st butterfly house in the Tropical Region, was opened to the public. At one time around late 1980’s, there were more than 50 butterfly houses in the U.K. and many others in Continental Europe. In 1988, The Butterfly World in Coconut Creek, Florida was opened, followed by Day Butterfly Centre at Callaway Gardens in Georgia, the same year. Since then, the industry bloomed and many big and moderate butterfly houses sprang up allover U.S.A. as well as in Canada.

The Penang Butterfly Farm is more than just a tourist attraction. It is set up as a 'living museum' to educate the public as well as a research centre to develop breeding methods. The Farm's founder David Goh explains the philosophy behind its operation.

Malay Peninsular has over 1000 recorded butterfly species, among the highest of any country in the world in relation to her small land mass. David Goh, the founder of the Penang Butterfly Farm was inspired and encouraged by Mr. Clive Farrell, owner of the Stratford Butterfly Farm at Stratford-on-Avon (birth-place of William Shakespeare) in England, to start a tropical butterfly farm in Malaysia.

Penang Butterfly Farm (PBF) was established in 1986 in Penang, Malaysia with 2 main objectives which are to function as a tourist destination and to serve as a centre for education, recreation and scientific research. The visitor to the Penang Butterfly Farm, finding himself surrounded by a myriad of fluttering butterflies within a seemingly natural setting, is likely to think himself in a sort of enchanted wilderness, bejeweled with colorful gems of creation. The best encounter at the Butterfly Farm is undoubtedly the free flying papilions in the enormous enclosure. The exhibition of selected insects and reptiles are also crowd drawers. The visitor, having traversed this complex of displays ends up in a souvenir shop selling butterfly-related paraphernalia.

Today, the Penang Butterfly Farm is the first tropical butterfly farm ever set up in the tropical world, with an average flying population of 4000 Malaysian butterflies of 120 different species, including the rare Indian Leafl (Kallima paralekta) and the endangered Yellow Bird wing (Troides helena). Probably the most famous of Malaysian butterflies is the Rajah Brooke's Bird wing of the Papilionidae family. First discovered in Borneo in 1855 by A. R. Wallace, it was named after the first British Rajah of Sarawak. The visitors can inspect the butterflies at close quarters as they flit around their favorite nectar plants as well as other tropical plants comprising of over 300 varieties.

The Penang Butterfly Farm is now a household name in Penang and a "must-see" for visitors since it opened in 1986. The farm located right at the end of the tourist hotel strip at Batu Ferringhi stands on a 0.8 hector site in Teluk Bahang, about 17km from George town. It has become one of the most popular stops on Penang's round island tour. The success of the Butterfly Farm as a tourist attraction has even inspired a series of similar commercial operations in Malacca, Cameron highlands and Singapore.

In spite of its general fame, the aspect of the Penang Butterfly Farm which means most to the people behind it has gained scant recognition within Malaysia. According to David Goh, "The locals only think of the Penang Butterfly Farm as a tourist attraction. In fact the farm is known and respected internationally as a breeding centre."

The controversy that has surrounded butterfly collecting has also been reviewed at the Convention of International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES). Like stamp collectors who usually concentrate on stamps of certain issue, country or historical period, butterfly collectors traditionally focus on a certain family of butterflies.

Among collectors, the most popular family of butterflies is the colourful Papilionidae, which includes the well-known groups of Swallowtails, Graphiums and Birdwings. The striking Swallowtails are so called because of their elongated hind wings.

Though it was previously thought that butterfly collecting endangered butterfly populations, it was often difficult to impose a set of rules for those who collect for research and those who collect for trading. David Goh views that amateur collectors, who often buy or exchange mounted specimens for their private collections, have traditionally contributed greatly to butterfly research as well as raised the level of appreciation of butterflies among general public.

A growing conviction among those involved with butterfly work is that collecting butterflies does not significantly threaten the butterfly population. According to comments given by Dr. Mark Collins at the International Union for Conservation of Nature, not even one butterfly species has become extinct through collecting.

Together with other major world experts on butterfly conservation, Dr. Collins believes that the overwhelming threat to butterfly species today comes from the destruction of their natural habitat. Therefore, the most important action that can be taken to conserve insect species is to persuade governments to preserve their natural habitats as forest reserves.

Some tropical countries highlight certain problems that arise from a ban collecting.. These countries have a law which prohibits people from collecting insects in the wild. This has discouraged research on the great range of butterfly species found in the wide range of natural habitat stretching (for example like Indonesia) from Sumatra to Irian Jaya. The prohibition apparently does not completely stop the illegal butterflies’ trade but only discourage collecting by amateurs and researchers. While many species of jungle insects remain undiscovered, they are steadily becoming extinct due to high rate of deforestation in a country. As a result of the ban, there are no studies or records of many disappearing species in such countries.

The controversy that has surrounded butterfly collecting has also been reviewed at the Convention of International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES). Like stamp collectors who usually concentrate on stamps of certain issue, country or historical period, butterfly collectors traditionally focus on a certain family of butterflies.

Among collectors, the most popular family of butterflies is the colourful Papilionidae, which includes the well-known groups of Swallowtails, Graphiums and Birdwings. The striking Swallowtails are so called because of their elongated hind wings.

Though it was previously thought that butterfly collecting endangered butterfly populations, it was often difficult to impose a set of rules for those who collect for research and those who collect for trading. David Goh views that amateur collectors, who often buy or exchange mounted specimens for their private collections, have traditionally contributed greatly to butterfly research as well as raised the level of appreciation of butterflies among general public.

A growing conviction among those involved with butterfly work is that collecting butterflies does not significantly threaten the butterfly population. According to comments given by Dr. Mark Collins at the International Union for Conservation of Nature, not even one butterfly species has become extinct through collecting.

Together with other major world experts on butterfly conservation, Dr. Collins believes that the overwhelming threat to butterfly species today comes from the destruction of their natural habitat. Therefore, the most important action that can be taken to conserve insect species is to persuade governments to preserve their natural habitats as forest reserves.

Some tropical countries highlight certain problems that arise from a ban collecting.. These countries have a law which prohibits people from collecting insects in the wild. This has discouraged research on the great range of butterfly species found in the wide range of natural habitat stretching (for example like Indonesia) from Sumatra to Irian Jaya. The prohibition apparently does not completely stop the illegal butterflies’ trade but only discourage collecting by amateurs and researchers. While many species of jungle insects remain undiscovered, they are steadily becoming extinct due to high rate of deforestation in a country. As a result of the ban, there are no studies or records of many disappearing species in such countries.

The controversy that has surrounded butterfly collecting has also been reviewed at the Convention of International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES). Like stamp collectors who usually concentrate on stamps of certain issue, country or historical period, butterfly collectors traditionally focus on a certain family of butterflies. Among collectors, the most popular family of butterflies is the colorful Papilionidae, which includes the well-known groups of Swallowtails, Graphiums and Birdwings. The striking Swallowtails are so called because of their elongated hind wings.

Though it was previously thought that butterfly collecting endangered butterfly populations, it was often difficult to impose a set of rules for those who collect for research and those who collect for trading. David Goh views that amateur collectors, who often buy or exchange mounted specimens for their private collections, have traditionally contributed greatly to butterfly research as well as raised the level of appreciation of butterflies among general public.

A growing conviction among those involved with butterfly work is that collecting butterflies does not significantly threaten the butterfly population. According to comments given by Dr. Mark Collins at the International Union for Conservation of Nature, not even one butterfly species has become extinct through collecting. Together with other major world experts on butterfly conservation, Dr. Collins believes that the overwhelming threat to butterfly species today comes from the destruction of their natural habitat. Therefore, the most important action that can be taken to conserve insect species is to persuade governments to preserve their natural habitats as forest reserves.

Thus, Leppidio was created in 2003 to address the significance in nature education. By far the simplest approach would be to have insect preserve for identification purposes and to retain their natural beauty for the continuation of its appreciation.

In order to make PBF very attractive to get wider patronage, many side-attractions have been created. These include: a big fish pond (about 1/3 of the flight area) with 70 over very big fresh water fishes made up of more than 20 species; other individual displays of invertebrates, reptiles, snakes, ducks, turtles and tortoises, free-flying seed-feeding birds inside the main flight area; adjacent to the flight area are a Hide and Seek garden with camouflaged insects, a little zoo of many more big live invertebrates housed in individual cases; an Insect Museum and a Gift-shop.

More recently, Penang Butterfly Farm has expanded its operation to encompass an Education and Resource centre. Several key components have made this aspect of PBF’s work a success:

With such increasing interest in insect research, it was an honour that our organization was given the privilege to host the 4th International Conference for Butterfly Exhibitors and Suppliers (ICBES) in 2000, the 2nd Asian Lepidoptera Conservation Symposium (ALCS) in 2008 the 9th ICBES in 2009. It is through years of uncompromising research and development that earn our organization the recognition of being the pioneer in its field. Within our organization we distribute our effort in participating as members in many wildlife related organization such as:

1988 Merit Award, Malaysian Tourism Gold Award (The Best Tourist Attraction) by Minister of Culture & Tourism Malaysia and Tourist Development Corporation Malaysia

1990 Merit Award, Malaysian Tourism Gold Award (The Best Tourist Attraction) by Minister of Culture, Art & Tourism Malaysia and Tourist Development Corporation of Malaysia

1991 Awarded the PATA Gold Award (Special Commendation) by The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA)

1996 Awarded the Best Tourist Attraction by Penang State Tourism Industry Committee

2008 Awarded as one of the Top 10 Tourist Attractions in Penang by Guang Ming Daily

2010 Voted as the #1 Most Popular Attraction in Penang by TripAdvisor.com

Since education in Nature Conservation through “Butterflies” has been widely promoted in the west and so far not much has been publicized in the Asian Region, the same should be given some importance especially when the economic and industrial development is currently the hottest in the world and this is inevitably creating much greater pressure on the imbalance between progress and nature conservation. In view of this, zoos and nature-related institutions should be more aware of this new trend and look to the west especially in terms of the introduction and implementation of some new regulations to simplify the legal movement and import-export procedure of live materials.

In this way, new concepts of butterfly houses and insect zoos will be popularized for the good of education, promotion of nature awareness and environmental sustainability and hopefully in the long run will help in the conservation of butterflies in the Asian Region.

(i.e. in the final decade of 20th century) incorporated into their establishments such compact live exhibition of not only butterflies but also jungle insects by constructing temperature-controlled tropical glass houses for visitors to walk through.

Recent world-wide activity has led to wide-spread interest in researching into the life-history and breeding of not only butterflies, but also many other invertebrates such as beetles, stick and leaf insects, mantises, spiders, scorpions, millipedes and even aquatic insect particularly fire-flies. So much so, enthusiasts in the west have started to organize annual international conferences on butterflies and separately on other invertebrates. Penang Butterfly Farm is therefore an ideal centre to provide collaboration work in training more professional people in this field.