[preface]

 Dr. Kurt Johnson, who heads up environmental work for the American Ethical Union (www.aeu.org), wrote reports on Monarch Watch 2000 in Central Park for the  NEWS of the Lepidopterists' Society and Lepidoptera News (Associations for Tropical and Holarctic Lepidoptera)-- two of the world's largest  Lepidoptera-related professional/amateur associations.  Below are extracts of  these news articles, adapted for a more general audience with the help of Dr. Orley Taylor, Director of Monarch Watch (www.MonarchWatch.org).

 [article]

 Monarch Conservation Crisis

 On September 12, 2000, The New York Times published an urgent warning by noted Monarch butterfly expert Dr. Lincoln P. Brower, and other scientists and  conservationists, describing a crisis situation at the Monarch butterfly's  overwintering grounds in central Mexico (The New York Times, Science Times, p.  1). Ten days later, the New York City Parks Department hosted a "who's who" of  Monarch experts and conservationists in New York's Central Park, to inform the  public and media about both the crisis and a proposed international response.  The event, called "Monarch Watch 2000 in Central Park" was supported by  Mastervision, Monarch Watch (a national Monarch Butterfly education and research program  headquartered at the University of Kansas), the New York City Parks Department,  and the Urban Park Rangers.

 In speeches and written statements, Monarch experts Drs. Lincoln Brower, Orley Taylor, Paul Opler, Robert Michael Pyle, accompanied by officials from the  Mexican government and the World Wildlife Fund, described the urgent situation  at the overwintering sites of the Monarch butterfly in Mexico where, for  millenia, hundreds of millions of Monarch butterflies migrate each year.  A recent study at the site (a small region of mountain fir forests located in  Michoacan State, Mexico) has indicated forest destruction far exceeds what was  anticipated.

 Supporting the message of urgency were representatives of numerous other conservation-oriented groups, including the Michoacan Reforestation Fund and  Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary Foundation (which both work at the Mexican  overwintering grounds) and the Aubudon Society, Sierra Club, Linnaean Society,  Metropolitan Biodiversity Center of the American Museum of Natural History,  American Ethical Union and New York Butterfly Club. The gravity of the reports  brought out reporters and camera teams from ABC, CBS, The New York Times and  Newsday as well as representative of the Mexican media.

 New York Parks Commissioner Henry Stern, introducing the scientists and conservationists, emphasized the international significance of the event. Alexander Brash, head of New York Urban Park Rangers, introduced Dr. Brower,  noting he had first been inspired by Brower’s scientific work twenty years ago  while a young student. Prior to the speeches by scientists and conservationists,  New York's Mexican consulate provided festive music and dancing while Dr.  Taylor's Monarch Watch program, aided by New York Urban Park Rangers, joined New  Yorkers in tagging Monarch butterflies for their annual flight southward. The  colorful festivities were soon overshadowed, however, by the gravity of the Monarch crisis reported Monarch Watch 2000's major speakers.

 Deforestation in Mexico

 Scientists speaking in Central Park said the recent crisis became apparent with the release of results of the first scientific study measuring the degree of forest deterioration within the Mexican Monarch's overwintering habitats over  the last decade. The study, by an international scientific team cooperating with  the Mexican government, was authored by Dr. Brower and colleagues at the  National Autonomous University of Mexico and the World Wildlife Fund. The  research results, reviewed September 12 in The New York Times Science Times,  showed that within the Monarch overwintering areas barely more than half of what used to be intact forest currently remains. At this rate of deterioration, the researchers estimated, nearly all original forest now used for Monarch roosting  in Mexico would be critically degraded by the year 2050. More frightening,  however, was the likelihood, they said, that forest thinning, combined with  complex niche requirements, particularly the need for water sources, of the overwintering Monarchs, would make successful mass roosting by the species in Mexico impossible much sooner, perhaps within a  decade.

 Drs. Brower and Taylor, Monica Messrie of the World Wildlife Fund and Jorge  Pinto, Consul General of Mexico in New York, emphasized that this rapid decline  in forest conditions at the overwintering sites necessitates implementation of  an aggressive long range plan, one which has both financial and political  support. Failure to slow and eventually halt degradation of the overwintering  habitat could lead to a sudden irreversible decline of the eastern monarch  population, perhaps within a decade, certainly within our lifetimes.

 Speaking of the extent of current deforestation, Dr. Brower stated "From what I've seen there year after year, I predicted it would be bad and getting  worse. But I didn't predict it would be this bad. The maps just floored me."  Dr. Karen Oberhauser, a monarch ecologist at the University of Minnesota  interviewed by The New York Times noted "It's the first study and a really  important study. We didn't expect the change to be this great.'' Dr. Orley  Taylor, of Monarch Watch, said "Conservation of the monarch migration is a now a  significant concern. In good years as many as 500 million monarchs in eastern  North America migrate to Mexico...truly one of the world's wonders. Yet the  continuation of this phenomenon is threatened by deforestation in Mexico...."  Emphasizing the international context both the crisis and possible solutions,  Dr. Paul Opler stated "Monarch conservation is a two-way street.... It behooves  us to give as much assistance to efforts in Mexico as we can from the United States."

 The New Conservation Strategy

 In response to the immediate crisis, Mexican representatives and Monarch specialists explained a more aggressive conservation strategy calling for, among  other things, an expanded preserve totaling more than three times the size of  current protected areas. Ms. Missrie noted that this new effort was needed  because, since 1986 when the Mexican government created the current reserve, 44%  of it high quality forest had still been destroyed.  The reserves are government protected but not government owned.  The local residents, owners of the land, have been told they can not cut the forests on their own lands.  Not surprisingly, this government mandate has not been universally embraced and some residents, desperate for income to support their family, have removed trees here and there leading to extensive fragmentation of the forest.  According to Dr.  Brower and Ms. Missrie, the lack of a program to compensate, or otherwise  positively motivate, residents in and around the Monarch preserves had become  the "achilles heel" of earlier conservation strategies.  The goal of the new strategy is to support the local communities in a manner that will reduce degradation of the forest while fosterng the trust and support of the residents.

 This effort will involve direct compensation for non-use of protected forest areas and forparticipation in the conservation programs themselves, merging the  forest protection strategy into the local economic and political scheme.  Funding for this new effort will come from a newly created "Monarch Butterfly  Conservation Fund".  This fund will be administered by World Wildlife Fund and the Mexican Fund for  the Conservation of Nature. The MBCS has been seeded with $5 million initial  funding but, Brower and Missie stated, will require $30 million to meets its  ultimate goals.

 The scientists and conservationists emphasized that to achieve the financial  targets of the new conservation strategy, worldwide public support will be  needed. As a result, lepidopterists, butterfly enthusiasts, and many  conservation organizations are being asked to spearhead the support of this  campaign. In addition, Dr. Brower and Ms. Missrie noted, current efforts  regarding habitat protection, enhancement, and replanting conducted at the  preserves by the Michoacan Reforestation Fund and Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary  Foundation will also need to be strengthened and expanded as well.  Representatives of both the MRF and MBSF attended the Central Park meetings.

The new conservation strategy has been praised by Mexico's Ministry of the Environment, Natural Resources and Fisheries, noting that it more comprehensively addresses the biological needs of the Monarch as well as the  social and political realities surrounding the reserve. The expanded reserve  acreage, they said, more adequately covers known wintering sites and is intended  to protect not only active roosting areas but the entire watersheds of which the  fir forests form an integral part.

Public Response

During the question and answer period following Dr. Brower’s speech, he was  asked by a reporter how one answers the question "What difference does it make  if Monarch butterflies go extinct". Dr. Brower answered that to ask this  question is the same as asking "What difference does it make if the Mona Lisa is  destroyed or England’s Crown Jewels thrown into the trash?". "Who cares about  the Crown Jewels?" he continued. "The fact is people, people do care about them;  they line up by the hundreds in London to see them. Why? Because, as with the  Mona Lisa, they have been taught that these objects have value, that they are a  part of man’s cultural heritage. Shouldn’t it be the same for natural treasures?  The Central Park crowd applauded.

Dr. Brower's view reflects what the conservation movement has come to call "the aesthetic argument"-- that natural wonders, like the Monarch butterfly's  millenial migration to Mexico, have the same inherent value world citizenry has  somehow learned to accord to works of art. Brower, and many educators, believe  that the sense of value directed at works of art results primarily from  education. As the noted Senegalese conservationist Baba Dioum has said: "In the  end we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand,  and we will understand only what we are taught." Brower, and others, believe  that a sense of value in natural treasures can be successfully taught.

Butterfly enthusiasts at the Central Park event acknowledged that they are probably the Monarch butterfly’s strongest ally. However, although they anticipate a major effort on the Monarch’s behalf by all international organizations dedicated to the study and appreciation of butterflies, they emphasized that a much wider public awareness of the Monarch’s plight will be  needed to actually save the Monarch in Mexico. They likened the crisis to  that which generated worldwide support for the causes of whales, bald eagles,  and other prominent natural symbols. Part of the problem with drawing attention  to the Monarch’s plight, they said, is that it is considered a common butterfly  by so many people. Most of these persons do not understand that, without the  Mexican overwintering grounds, survival of this grand species of butterfly in eastern North American cannot continue.

Accordingly, Dr. Taylor emphasized the ongoing need for study and education  about the Monarch. "Although preserving the overwintering sites in Mexico is  fundamental to Monarch conservation," he stressed, "we still need to know more about Monarchs everywhere." "Accordingly", he said "Our goals at Monarch Watch  are not only to draw attention to these threats to the migration but also to  evaluate the impact of overall human activities on monarch populations. If we  are going to protect the monarch migration, we need to develop a baseline for  the population, that is, to know the size of the population and to identify  those factors that cause monarch numbers to decline or increase. The tagging  program is helping us get these answers. Each year, Monarch Watch issues 250,000  tags to schools and volunteers. These assistants, including tens of thousands of children, tag approximately 70,000 monarchs each season. The data from recoveries of tagged monarchs in the United States and in Mexico enable us to 1)  Determine the origins of the monarchs that reach Mexico; 2) Calculate the  mortality of monarchs during migration, and 3) Estimate the overall size of the  migratory population. In the future, data on population size and dynamics will  be extremely important in determining whether the monarch populations are  declining or increasing as a result of human activities". Dr. Taylor emphasized  that this was why illustrating tagging at the New York event was an important  educational and conservation tool.

Dr. Robert Michael Pyle's, the author of the recent book Chasing Monarchs, in a written statement to Monarch Watch 2000 in Central Park shared this view. He noted that other issues regarding the Monarch are in play  today as well. "While, the regrettable trend of scattering monarchs hither and  yon at weddings and other events", he said, "has only muddied our ability to  study their true movements, this enlightened event can only help -- help our  understanding, help our community devotion to saving this great and endangered  phenomenon, help the Monarchs themselves."

The final paragraph of Dr. Pyle's statement also well summarized the feelings  most lepidopterists have for the Monarch butterfly and illustrates the common  ground that can must galvanize lepidopterists in aggressively supporting their  conservation: " In 1976, shortly after the Mexican sites came to light", he said  "the North American migratory Monarchs were declared the top priority in world  butterfly conservation. That judgment has not changed, and has become much more  urgent with recent disclosures of forest loss and chemical and genetic threats.  This animal is truly the Monarch of the Americas, with an enormous potential to link Canadian, American, and Mexican conservation action. Long may the Monarchs  reign over the skies and milkweed meadows of North America!"