Well, at least they have their priorities right. (sarcastic)
Mexico Earmarks $4.6 Million for Butterfly Reserve
Mexican President Felipe Calderon announced a plan to pump pesos into a monarch butterfly reserve to boost tourism in an impoverished area where
illegal logging threatens the monarch's habitat. (AP Photo/Miguel Tovar)
11-25-2007 5:19 PM
By JESSICA BERNSTEIN-WAX, Associated Press Writer
CERRO PRIETO, Mexico (Associated Press) -- President Felipe Calderon unveiled a sweeping plan Sunday to curb logging and protect millions of monarch
butterflies that migrate to the mountains of central Mexico each winter, covering trees and bushes and attracting visitors from around the world.
The plan will put $4.6 million toward additional equipment and advertising for the existing Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, covering a
124,000-acre swathe of trees and mountains that for thousands of years has served as the winter nesting ground to millions of orange- and black-winged
monarch butterflies.
Calderon said it would help boost tourism and support the economy in an impoverished area where illegal logging runs rampant.
"It is possible to take care of the environment and at the same time promote development," the president said.
The new initiative is part of ongoing efforts to protect the butterflies, which are a huge tourist attraction and the pride of Mexico. In some areas,
officials can even be found standing guard along highways and slowing cars that might accidentally hit a butterfly flying across the road.
The plan also meshes nicely with one of Calderon's main policy planks: protecting the environment and combatting global warming. He has drawn up a
national anti-global warming plan and committed to plant some 250 million trees in 2007.
While the monarch butterfly does not appear on any endangered species lists, experts say illegal logging in Mexico threatens its existence in North
America because it removes the foliage that protects the delicate insects from the cold and rain.
"By even taking a single tree out near the butterfly colony you allow heat to escape from the forest and that then jeopardizes the butterflies," said
Lincoln Brower, professor emeritus of zoology at the University of Florida and at Sweet Briar College in Sweet Briar, Va.
Brower, who has studied the insects for 52 years, described the Mexican nesting grounds as "the Mecca of the whole insect world."
The reserve already receives some $36.4 million in government funding, and its staff includes a team of park rangers who patrol the area equipped with
assault rifles and body armor searching for armed gangs of lumber thieves.
The World Wildlife Fund and the Mexican Fund for Nature Conservation say the efforts are paying off. They say this year saw a 48 percent drop in
illegal logging, compared to a year ago.
"We're gaining ground in the fight against illegal logging," Calderon said.
Each September, the butterflies begin their 3,400-mile journey from the forests of eastern Canada and parts of the United States to the central
Mexican mountains. The voyage is considered an aesthetic and scientific wonder.
The butterflies return to the U.S. and Canada in late March, where they breed and cycle through up to five generations before heading back south.
Scientists say they are genetically programmed to return to Mexico, where they settle into the same mountains their ancestors inhabited the year
before.
According to Brower, sometimes they even return to the exact same trees _ probably because previous monarchs have marked the area through a mechanism
scientists don't yet understand.
The monarchs that spend the winter in Mexico do not reproduce until they return to the U.S. and have a much longer life span than those born in the
spring and summer.
Omar Vidal, director of the World Wildlife Fund's Mexico program, applauded Calderon's plan.
"This is the longest migration of all insects, a unique phenomenon and a natural wonder and Mexico has the biggest responsibility to protect them
because they come here to hibernate," he said.
Brower said the monarch isn't at risk of extinction because it can be found in Mexico, Canada, the U.S., most of South America and even parts of
Australia and New Zealand. But disappearing habitat could threaten a delicate migratory route that has existed for an estimated 10,000 years.
"The whole migratory phenomenon which involves two continents and over a million square miles could just go down the drain," he said.
[Edited on 11-26-2007 by dccf]
Saving Critters
MrBillM - 11-26-2007 at 03:13 PM
Have you ever considered how many millions of those we kill every year ? At the right time of the year, my windshield must kill thousands on my trips
to Baja. I often have to stop 3-4 times just to clean of the glass so I can see.Paula - 11-26-2007 at 04:59 PM
The migrating monarchs stop in Santa Cruz CA every year, and they are something to see! Absolutely beautiful!! They hang out and mate in a grove of
eucaliptus trees near the ocean. The grove is a protected area for the butterflies.
I think the Mexico butterfly reserve is a good idea. And Mr. Bill, you should slow down when driving through the masses-- Vivan las Mariposas!dccf - 11-26-2007 at 05:18 PM
It's not that I have anything against the monarchs, I was just making a reference to over 4 million going to the preserve and hiring people to stop
traffic for them instead of putting the money toward the crime in Baja. I'm pretty sure that would increase tourism.
I go to Pismo Beach, Ca every year to see their migration. They just cover the trees!! Can't see the individual butterfly.
The Beauty of Nature.
MrBillM - 11-26-2007 at 06:45 PM
Those Butterflies are beautiful. Sometimes I'm tempted to save and exhibit the ones who die intact on the screen in front of my radiator. Maybe next
Spring.toneart - 11-26-2007 at 07:02 PM
Pacific Grove, in Monterey, CA is also a Monarch migration spot.
I saw an item on the news last night regarding a project in Kenya to plant millions of trees to hopefully begin to replace the depleted forest. Africa
is aware and is joining the world community in which we all benefit. Ecology is neither a dirty word nor concept. It is just,
well................Inconvenient to those who should know better.
Maybe, if Calderon lures tourists (while doing his part to nurture the earth), he will generate more funds to go towards making the border region
safer or plugging it into the employment deficit. In the mean time, Good Ol' Uncle Sam is chipping in.vandenberg - 11-26-2007 at 08:39 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by MrBillM
Those Butterflies are beautiful. Sometimes I'm tempted to save and exhibit the ones who die intact on the screen in front of my radiator. Maybe next
Spring.
The trouble is the way they "FLUTTER"
Makes it so damn hard to avoid them . But I try
