Monarch Watch 2000 Event

Speech by Monica Missrie, World Wildlife Fund

 Thank you for giving me the opportunity to tell you a little bit about what we are doing at WWF Mexico for this wonderful insect that has gathered all of us here today. Let me tell you it was really hard to summarize it in 3 minutes but I’ll try.

 Basically our efforts have concentrated in protecting and restoring the forests where the monarchs overwintering which have been logged extensively and are severely degraded.

 Many attempts have been made to reverse this situation. The most important one was in 1986, when a Presidential Decree created the Monarch Butterfly Special Biosphere Reserve. However, studies show that between 1984 and 1999, 44% of high quality forest inside the reserve has been degraded.

 Over the past two years we have collaborated with several scientists and institutions to study resource use problems, deforestation patterns and possible solutions in order to revise the 1986 decree. This led to a proposal for new reserve boundaries , based on an extensive study of monarch ecology, watershed and forest conservation, as well as critical land tenure and social issues.

 The new reserve was officially announced on September 7 and the authorities are now in the process of negotiating it with the local landowners.

 Historically, land use limitations imposed by protected areas have given few options to land owners, unintentionally generating illegal resource use and social conflicts.  This is understandable. Imagine if you had an apartment and suddenly the government told you that you couldn’t use it anymore or rent it to anyone because it  needed to be conserved. You would still legally own it but you wouldn’t be able to use it. You would be losing the right to your property. The same thing happens to the landowners in Mexico. They can keep their land but they lose the right to use it.  For this reason we decided to create a trust fund to compensate them for this loss.

 We are collaborating with a Mexican NGO to establish the Monarch Butterfly Conservation Fund which will provide the necessary financial resources to support long-term conservation activities by the local communities within the core zone of the new reserve.

 This fund will finance the purchase of the logging permits currently operating inside the new core area of the proposed reserve and payments for forest conservation activities included that will be carried out by local communities in the core zone.  Both payments will be financed with the interest earned by the fund. We have already raised five million dollars to establish the fund and as the capital increases we will be able to offer more alternatives to the communities.

 A lot of people have approached me and asked, how can I help? If I contribute funds, how will I know they are really helping the local people? I was always left speechless.  Now I finally have a good answer!  The Monarch Butterfly Conservation Fund.  

Monica Missrie
World Wildlife Fund Mexico