Ecobreves – MEXICO: Monarch Butterflies Under Threat

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

MEXICO, Dec 22 2007 (IPS) - Dozens of peasant farmers and police are keeping an eye on the forests of the sanctuaries for the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) in Mexico, but logging continues under the veil of corruption and fed by the poverty of area inhabitants. “The logging companies offer a lot of money and they buy from anyone, which is why the problem continues, even though the government said it's been stopped,” Carmelo Rojas, a peasant farmer who takes part in the official protection programs of the monarch in Michoacán state, told Tierramérica.

Millions of butterflies began arriving in late November in the mountainous zones of central-western Mexico after their annual migration of up to 5,000 kilometers from the lakes regions of Canada and the United States.

In early December, government officials seized more than six tons of timber cut in monarch butterfly sanctuaries.