Ecobreves – MEXICO: Unstoppable Logging in Monarch Butterfly Reserve

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

MEXICO CITY, Dec 29 2008 (IPS) - Logging has not stopped in the monarch butterfly sanctuaries in Mexico, report local residents. The butterflies make annual migrations between Mexico and the United States and Canada. Deforestation continues, “the lumber is leaving on trucks all the time,” rural resident Francisco Suárez told Tierramérica. He lives near the Crescencio Morales ejido (rural cooperative), in the heart of the reserve shared by Michoacán and Mexico states, west of Mexico City.

The ejido, inside the 11,000 hectares of the reserve's core, is the most conflictive site in the area because of agricultural disputes, according to authorities.

Suárez, who did not give his residence for fear of reprisals, said that there are “powerful armed groups” that continue logging the forest in Crescencio Morales.

Half of the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) reserve is degraded due to the lack of trees that are essential to the hundreds of millions of these insects that fly there from as far away as 5,000 km from the north.