Our Board

Joel Moreno Rojas-Board Member and Project Supervisor. Joel is the fourth born in a family of ten in Macheros, Mexico, a rural community of 350 people at the base of Cerro Pelon. When Joel was an infant, his father and two of his uncles started working as forest rangers on Cerro Pelon. When Joel was growing up, Macheros did not have running water or electricity, much less any infrastructure to allow locals to benefit from butterfly tourism. In 2000, Joel migrated to the United States, where he learned how to speak English and run a business. He returned to Mexico in 2010 and started working as a butterfly tour guide. , he opened a B&B and butterfly tour service together. This business has benefited the local economy directly by employing a dozen workers, as well as indirectly by increasing the volume of visitors at Cerro Pelón and Joel founded Butterflies and Their People to expand their efforts to promote economic development in the economically marginalized communities that live alongside the butterflies.

Patricio Moreno Rojas-Board Member and CEPANAF Liaison. Patricio is a native of Macheros, the sixth of ten children and the father of two. In fall of 2014 he took over his father Melquiades Moreno’s job as a forest ranger employed by CEPANAF, the state park system of the State of Mexico. CEPANAF has employed three rangers to patrol the 8,250-acre park since the early 1980s. Patricio soon discovered that three workers was nowhere near enough personnel to effectively halt logging on Cerro Pelon in economically uncertain times. It was at his urging that his brother Joel founded Butterflies and Their People in order to search for additional funding for forest protection. Patricio coordinates the activities of the CEPANAF rangers and the BTP arborists when they work together to patrol the forest, protect the monarch colonies, plant trees and maintain trails.

Joel Moreno Rojas-Board Member and Project Supervisor. Joel is the fourth born in a family of ten in Macheros, Mexico, a rural community of 350 people at the base of Cerro Pelon. When Joel was an infant, his father and two of his uncles started working as forest rangers on Cerro Pelon. When Joel was growing up, Macheros did not have running water or electricity, much less any infrastructure to allow locals to benefit from butterfly tourism. In 2000, Joel migrated to the United States, where he learned how to speak English and run a business. He returned to Mexico in 2010 and started working as a butterfly tour guide. , he opened a B&B and butterfly tour service together. This business has benefited the local economy directly by employing a dozen workers, as well as indirectly by increasing the volume of visitors at Cerro Pelón and Joel founded Butterflies and Their People to expand their efforts to promote economic development in the economically marginalized communities that live alongside the butterflies.

Patricio Moreno Rojas-Board Member and CEPANAF Liaison. Patricio is a native of Macheros, the sixth of ten children and the father of two. In fall of 2014 he took over his father Melquiades Moreno’s job as a forest ranger employed by CEPANAF, the state park system of the State of Mexico. CEPANAF has employed three rangers to patrol the 8,250-acre park since the early 1980s. Patricio soon discovered that three workers was nowhere near enough personnel to effectively halt logging on Cerro Pelon in economically uncertain times. It was at his urging that his brother Joel founded Butterflies and Their People in order to search for additional funding for forest protection. Patricio coordinates the activities of the CEPANAF rangers and the BTP arborists when they work together to patrol the forest, protect the monarch colonies, plant trees and maintain trails.