Illegal Logging In Mexico Butterfly Reserves Has All But Stopped

For 12 years, the Mexican authorities have struggled to stop illegal logging in the monarch butterfly reserves that were established in 2012. For many local farmers and familes, logging was the only income they knew and as many as 1,140 acres a year were being clear cut, leaving monarch butterflies with a smaller and smaller area to breed and rest during migration. The journey of the monarch is a tale of epic proportions with no one generation managing the entire round trip. The butterflies begin flying north in March, making their way all the way to Canada and returning to Mexico in the early weeks of November but the logging of their forests, coupled with harsh winters, had been causing a massive decline in their numbers.

This year marks the first time that no logging has been discernable from satallite photos, proving the efforts of the Mexican government, ecological groups, and private donors has helped. Many families that used to log have instead been shown how to start seedlings, replant trees, and build up tourism business based on the fascination people have with the butterfly migration. Authorities state that this change may not mean that all logging has stopped but the only operations still running at this time appear to be mostly individuals whose impact on the forest is much smaller.

Omar Vidal of the environmental group WWF Mexico states that more education and policing efforts will be needed to stop these last holdouts of the logging days. There is hope, however, that the butterflies will be able to recover in numbers once the forests are stable again.

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