Illegal logging threatens butterfly haven in Mexico

Mexico City, Mar 24, 2008 (EFE via COMTEX) -- NO MATCHES FOUND. | news | PowerRating | PR Charts -- The Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve could lose two-thirds of its current forest area in 20 years if illegal logging is not stopped, an expert from the National Autonomous University of Mexico said Monday.

UNAM's Jorge Lopez Garcia said that by 2051 only a third of the current woods would remain in this protected area, created in 1986, if deforestation is not suspended.

"The reserve is in a delicate state, which makes it urgent to take measures to stop the clandestine logging completely," Lopez said in a communique issued by UNAM.

The biologist said that in the short term various erosive processes are expected in the area, "with natural springs filling with sediments and drying up," which could affect the ecosystem of the monarch butterfly.

Yet despite the damage, the expert believes that the monarch is in no danger of extinction thanks to its great ability to adapt to the environment.

The monarch lives up to nine months and customarily migrates through North America in search of subtropical temperatures.

Each year between the months of November and March, millions of these lepidoptera hibernate in remote natural places in the woods of central Mexico after arriving from the United States and Canada.

Lopez Garcia believes in reintroducing a total ban on logging in the area, which he considers the only way to stop the degradation of the monarch's habitat, one of the country's tourist attractions.

He also suggested promoting in the area other economic activities as alternatives to logging, such as tourism, hiking, mountaineering, cabin rentals, marketing local handicrafts, selling trout and collecting mushrooms, among others.

"What should be done is not only protect the area where the monarch butterfly goes, but protect the forest in general, for the environmental benefits that its water offers society," Lopez Garcia said. EFE

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