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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

Mexican Group Cites Logging Threat to Butterflies

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

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4/24/99

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE

The annual migration of monarch butterflies to the Michoacan forests

in Mexico is truly one of the wonders of nature. Illegal logging in

protected reserves, however, severely threatens the forest habitat

where the butterflies winter. Mexican environmentalists have

highlighted to government that logging exceeds allocated limits, and

it appears possible that there may be some actions taken to remedy the

situation.

g.b.

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Title: Mexican Group Cites Logging Threat to Butterflies

Source: Reuters

Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint

Date: April 18, 1999

MEXICO CITY (Reuters)- Mexican environmentalists Sunday hailed

government audits into illegal logging in the protected reserves of

migrating monarch butterflies and demanded action now that their

protests had been borne out.

The Group of 100, the country's leading ecological advocacy group,

said investigations by the Environment Ministry had found communities

in the central state of Michoacan, where the monarchs shelter in the

winter, had cut down more than twice as many trees as allowed.

``It's the first time the federal authority has recognized that

logging exceeds what has been authorized,'' poet Homero Aridjis,

president of the group, said.

``This is very important,'' he told Reuters.

The monarch butterflies have captured the imagination of

environmentalists worldwide for their migration from Mexico to Canada

and back. Generations born along the way instinctively find their

habitats in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The millions of butterflies that blanket the forests of Michoacan are

a major tourist attraction from about October to April, when they

start heading back up north.

But unchecked ravaging of pine forests has deprived butterflies of

their winter habitat, reducing the population by 50 percent to 80

percent in ecological reserves where logging is supposedly controlled,

the Group of 100 said.

In a statement, it said 10 audits by environmental watchdog Profepa

had discovered that four communities exceeded their logging quotas

``seriously'' and the other six slightly.

One community in the monarch reserve had chopped down 253.5 percent

more than permitted.

The Group of 100 said a forest warden in one area was involved in the

logging and was selling three truckloads of timber a week.

``This proves that the greatest problem in the monarch butterfly

sanctuaries is logging,'' it said.

``Logging is worrisome because official estimates say only half the

number of butterflies arrived this year (in some areas).''

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