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.
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.