Community Conservation of Monarch Forest in Mexico

June, July and August were busy months for our local partner Alternare. Collaborating with scientists from the local university and funds from MBF, local communities planted 32,350 trees in 35 hectares in the Buffer Zone of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. Planting trees in these areas reduces human pressure on the inner Core Zone where monarchs overwinter and encourages local people to protect and conserve the environment. A third of the seedlings came from community nurseries set up thanks to your donations. The original plan was to plant 32,000 trees in 32 hectares so we were very happy to surpass our goal!

Conservation workshops continued and during the last trimester we carried out 8 workshops to teach 62 women and 14 men how to build fuel-efficient stoves resulting in the construction of 49 stoves for individual families. We also held 4 workshops where 11 women and 54 men built 3 community cisterns and 1 for a family. Stoves decrease the demand for wood from the forest and cisterns help conserve water by collecting and storing rainwater.

Anastacio “Tacho”, a campesino (farmer) and Alternare instructor shared his thoughts about the workshops and the reforestation project:  “I love the campesino-to-campesino (farmer-to-farmer) methodology which allows us to share experiences with community members and academics. With the work we are doing managing and conserving the forest I see a future full of hope with lots of butterflies.”

The fall migration is underway and we will have to wait to compare with last year but many people across the breeding range reported seeing more monarchs this year. Like Anastacio, we are full of hope and envision monarchs migrating well into the future. Thank you for being our partners and sharing our vision!

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