Rising international demand from collectors for the insects of Papua New Guinea, in particular the endemic birdwing butterflies (Ornithoptera spp.), has been met since 1978 by the government sponsored Insect Farming and Trading Agency (IFTA). Institutions such as IFTA have the potential to satisfy markets through legitimate trading, boost local livelihoods and thus provide conservation incentives, and satisfy CITES criteria. Until the onset in Papua New Guinea of large-scale logging and mining in the 1990s, and a crisis of governance, IFTA was widely regarded as a conservation and development success. However, analysis of its trading records for 1995-2002 suggests that this agency is now struggling to sustain payments to village-based insect ranchers and collectors. This failure, combined with the limited number of ranchers and collectors and their restricted geographical spread, casts some doubt on this model of sustainable conservation.
