In Bali, protecting fireflies also means working in the fields

In Taro, Bali, a programme combines firefly breeding with an agricultural transition. The first local counts reported are encouraging, but habitat restoration remains essential.

In Taro, Bali, the nights in the rice fields have changed. Wayan Wardika remembers swarms of fireflies visible above the fields around forty years ago. Their near-disappearance from his village led the farmer to launch Bring Back the Light in 2020: a programme combining firefly breeding, habitat restoration and changes to farming practices.

The project is based on a simple but demanding idea: releasing insects is not enough if the environment in which they are meant to live remains degraded. In Taro, conservation therefore also takes place in the neighbouring fields, where pesticides and changes to the landscape can affect the conditions in which fireflies live.

Fireflies bred before being released

The programme team, led scientifically by Cindy Chayani, raises larvae in terrariums designed to replicate jungle and wetland habitats. Development can take up to two years. Around 90% of the adults are then released into the wild, according to Mongabay’s report on the project.

According to Mongabay, the programme has released nearly 20 000 larvae and adults. The report describes a gradual rise in local firefly counts. However, this encouraging result relates to local observations: on its own, it is not enough to establish a trend across the whole island or to demonstrate that the population has been restored in the long term.

This distinction matters because captive breeding and habitat quality address two different problems. The former can provide individuals to release; the latter must enable fireflies to survive and reproduce. The programme therefore presents ecosystem restoration as a condition for long-term conservation, not as an automatic benefit of breeding.

Reducing pressures in the fields

The project attributes the observed decline to environmental degradation and human activities, including rapid land development, light pollution and the extensive use of pesticides. These pressures can have different effects: changes to the land reduce or alter habitats, while agricultural products can contaminate the environments where insects live.

To influence farming practices, Wardika turns manure collected from a local facility that keeps white cows into compost. He also makes a product called eco-enzyme from market food waste, which the programme uses as a pesticide. The report describes the approach as an effort to limit toxic run-off into natural environments.

The initiative is seeking to persuade 35 neighbouring farmers to adopt the programme’s organic farming practices. To reduce financial barriers, it provides organic fertilisers and eco-enzymes free of charge, and plans to compensate for any losses during the transition. According to Mongabay, four farmers have adopted the system so far. The gap between the target and the number of participants is a reminder that conservation also depends on the economic decisions made by farmers.

The project is funded in part by ecotourism visits focused on fireflies and sales of organic agricultural products. This combination links environmental protection to farm income: it can support conservation activities, while making some of them dependent on visitor numbers and sales.

One insect, several roles in its environment

Fireflies are more than a visible sign in the night. Mongabay notes that they can contribute to pollination and that their larvae prey on snails that damage crops. They therefore occupy several roles in the ecological relationships of an agricultural landscape. Their numbers can also serve as a bioindicator: a change in their presence draws attention to the state of the environment, without identifying the cause of that change on its own.

At least four firefly species in South-East Asia are thought to be close to extinction, according to the report. This regional finding puts Taro’s work into perspective, but should not be confused with the precise status of the village’s fireflies or with an assessment of all the species found in Bali.

The programme also invites visitors to discover the insects’ life cycle and pesticide-free farming areas. This cultural and educational aspect can make conservation work more visible to residents and visitors. However, it cannot replace either population monitoring or habitat protection: the environmental conditions and the fireflies’ ability to persist there will determine the project’s reach.

In Taro, then, the return of the fireflies is less a matter of releasing them than a project on several fronts: breeding insects, protecting places where they can live, and persuading neighbouring farms to change some of their practices. The local counts reported by the project offer an encouraging first sign. What happens next will depend on these efforts continuing and on how the habitats develop.