Ecobreves – MEXICO: Butterflies Poisoned

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

MEXICO CITY, Feb 24 2001 (IPS) - For decades, the monarch butterfly has been faced with the progressive destruction of the forests in Mexico that serve as its wintering and mating grounds, but now it confronts a fatal threat: loggers have begun spraying pesticides. Thousands of monarch butterflies were found dead in the reserves designated for them in Michoacán state, poisoned by insecticides, denounced writer Homero Aridjis, leader of the Group of 100, an environmental group here.

''It was a sickening aggression, such a thing had never occurred before,'' he told Tierramérica.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office for Environmental Protection considered that the most likely cause was an untimely frost. ''Perhaps the Prosecutor's Office is taking about a previous case, but there is no doubt that the latest killing was from pesticides,'' Aridjis responded.

Monarchs are famous for their yearly arrival in Mexico after as much as a 3,000-km trip from the forests of Canada and the United States. They winter here, where they mature and mate.