Why We Need Your Help
According to some studies, the monarch migration will not have decades if we continue business as usual. We need to eliminate illegal logging on the ground in Mexico–not just on paper. The forest needs to have people present if we are to prevent logging, and people need jobs other than logging.
Why We Need Your Help
According to some studies, the monarch migration will not have decades if we continue business as usual. We need to eliminate illegal logging on the ground in Mexico–not just on paper. The forest needs to have people present if we are to prevent logging, and people need jobs other than logging.
The sight of millions of monarchs clustered in a sacred forest grove, taking to the air all at once, filling the air with the sounds of their wings, makes for an awe-inspiring experience. For local people, the monarchs that came like clockwork every Day of the Dead represented the returning souls of the recently departed. This respect kept them from talking about this phenomenon to outsiders, delaying their discovery by the outside world until 1975. Since then, the area of the overwintering roost has been declared a UNESCO Heritage Site, and therefore part of the patrimony of humanity. It belongs to all of us.
But if we continue the status quo of monarch conservation in Mexico, the monarch migration is in
imminent danger of becoming a distant memory. A combination of three trends puts them at risk:
Population Decline. The number of overwintering monarchs has decreased by at least 84% since researchers
started tracking the size of the population twenty years ago. This decline seems to correlate with the
introduction of Roundup-ready GMO corn and soy crops throughout their summer breeding grounds in the
U.S. Monarchs can only lay their eggs on milkweed, a plant that has become increasingly scarce with
increased herbicide use.
Climate Change. There are fewer monarchs than there used to be, and the ones that we still have face
additional environmental stressors. Cerro Pelon is getting warmer and the monarchs now engage in much
more flight activity than ever before, expending the fat stores they need to survive the winter. Then there are
the extreme weather events that are becoming increasingly common. On March 9, 2016, a freak ice storm
killed 36% of the overwintering monarchs, leaving them clinging together on the trees in frozen clumps.
Deforestation in Mexico. Low numbers and erratic weather make an intact forest canopy in the butterfly
sanctuary more crucial than ever. Current conservation strategies fail to address the economic desperation
that fuels illegal logging, making deforestation a persistent and ongoing problem. Taking trees changes the
protective microclimate that draws the monarch colonies to us in the first place.
The first two issues in this list are complex multi-faceted issues that involve the wholesale reformation of
multi-billion dollar industries. But combating deforestation in Mexico has an easy and affordable solution:
offer local people alternative employment in the form of full-time forestry jobs. A little bit can go a long way
in a country where the minimum daily wage is less than $9 USD. We started our pilot project paying
workers $8,000 USD each per year. We need more resources to continue our commitment to them. We
would like to raise their salaries, offer them benefits and pay into their social security, which would mean an
additional $8000 per year per worker.
As things stand now, most resources for monarch conservation in Mexico are dedicated to reforestation. But
replanting trees after logging happens does not stop logging. The logging continues, and so does the
reforestation, even though these trees won’t be big enough to offer the monarchs sufficient protection for
decades. According to some studies, the monarch migration will not have decades if we continue business as
usual. We need to eliminate illegal logging on the ground in Mexico–not just on paper. The forest needs to
have people present if we are to prevent logging, and people need jobs other than logging.