A sanctuary for butterflies

Long-distance travellers Each spring, monarch butterflies migrate in their millions from their winter home, the Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Mexico – and although those who depart will never return, their descendants arrive back eight months later, after a journey that takes them as far as eastern Canada. Their Mexican home was discovered in 1974, when researchers traced the butterflies’ flight path south to Michoacán, There, butterflies cling to oyamel trees in such numbers that branches break under the weight. The spectacle made the covers of National Geographic and Scientific American, inadvertently prompting a tourism boom in the small rural towns in the area.   While the monarch butterfly is not endangered, its amazing migration is – because logging operations and land-use changes have damaged vital forest sanctuaries. So, in 2000, WWF and partners helped set up the $6.75 million Monarch Butterfly Conservation Fund, which rewards communities whose land is not degraded by logging – and also pays for conservation activities such as ecotourism and reforestation.

Results are impressive. Michoacán has been included in the list of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites since 2003, and the Fund has transferred nearly $1.8 million to 32 landowners in the ‘core zone’ of the reserve. While rates of forest degradation in properties not participating in the fund have increased ninefold, degradation in funded properties is down by some 56%. There is also more effort to use tourism as a catalyst for regional development, with visitors asked to purchase tickets and contract a local guide. WWF has also been working with Telcel, Latin America’s largest mobile phone company, along with the Government, to offer better alternatives to logging to local inhabitants. “Conservation of the area is in the hands of local communities,” explains Omar Vidal, Director of WWF-México. “What we have to do – the government, social organisations and the private sector – is offer economic alternatives; you cannot ask people to conserve the forest and die of hunger.”
– Ron Mader and Chris Alden

This article is part of the Green Futures Special Publication Viva la vida verde, in which we set out the key sustainability challenges facing Mexico, and showcase some of the innovative green breakthroughs under way. Read more articles here.

27 February 2009

Chris Alden and Ron Mader