MEXICO EXPANDS, PROTECTS BUTTERFLY SANCTUARY
WebPosted Fri Nov 10 16:19:48 2000

MEXICO CITY--Efforts to protect the winter nesting grounds of monarch 
butterflies are underway in Mexico. President Ernesto Zedillo says his 
country will link several existing mountaintop nature reserves into one 
continuous corridor, and pay inhabitants not to log the area. 

 A $5 million fund to compensate the estimated 60,000 inhabitants for 
lost logging rights has been set up by the World Wildlife Fund, WWF, the 
Mexican Fund for Natural Conservation and the Mexican government. 

 The announcement comes two months after a study showing 44 per cent of 
the fir forests that shelter the migrating butterflies have been damaged 
or destroyed over the last 29 years. The trees have been cut both by 
local communities and by big logging companies. 

 The cool shade of the forest, in which the monarchs drape themselves by 
the millions, is a necessary part of the butterflies' migration, 
protecting them from excessive cold, rain and wind. 

 New solutions to old problems 

 According to the WWF, using an economic incentive to protect a natural 
area is an innovative concept in Mexico. A spokesperson said in the 
past, land-use restrictions were imposed without compensation and often 
led landowners to increase illegal activities like logging. 

 Each year, monarch butterflies complete a 5,000 kilometre migration from 
the United States and Canada back to their wintering grounds of the year 
before, in Mexico. 

 No one butterfly completes the entire trip. As one generation dies, 
their offspring, born en route, continue the migration where their 
parents left off. Scientists don't fully understand how this next 
generation of butterflies manages to find a place they've never visited. 

 
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