MESSAGE
| DATE | 2020-05-07 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] Monarch Butterflies
|
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/07/opinion/monarch-butterfly-mexico-protection.html
nytimes.com
Opinion | Protecting the Monarchs
By Alexis Okeowo and Katie Orlinsky
5-6 minutes
Monarch butterflies at the Rosario Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve
in Michoacan, Mexico.
Credit...Katie Orlinsky for The New York Times
Opinion
Climate change and the violence in Michoacán threaten Mexico’s Monarch
Butterfly Biosphere Reserve.
Monarch butterflies at the Rosario Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve
in Michoacan, Mexico.Credit...Katie Orlinsky for The New York Times
Ms. Okeowo is a staff writer at The New Yorker. Ms. Orlinsky is a
freelance photographer.
May 7, 2020, 3:30 p.m. ET
Going up into the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, between the
Mexican states of Michoacán and Estado de México at an altitude of
almost 10,000 feet, can be dizzying. The flashes of orange catch the
corner of your eye, dart around your shoulders and streak above in the
sky. Neon in your face, rustling your hair and eyelashes, as you realize
you are surrounded.
Butterflies crowd the horizon, litter the walking path and tremble on
the green leaves of the trees in which they nest. They circle and smash
into visitors, who are encouraged to stay as quiet as possible so as not
to disturb the fragile insects.
Image
Monarch butterflies fill the sky at the reserve during the fall-winter
migration season.
Credit...Katie Orlinsky for The New York Times
Every November, the reserve begins to welcome hundreds of millions of
monarch butterflies, which journey several thousand miles from the
United States and Canada to escape the coldest months of the year. But
the monarchs, and their spectacular migration, are at risk of becoming
extinct from rising temperatures and drought caused by climate change;
loss of habitat and the eradication of milkweed, the plants that nourish
and host their eggs; and toxic pesticides.
Image
Credit...Katie Orlinsky for The New York Times
Image
Credit...Katie Orlinsky for The New York Times
The reserve has felt, to the conservationists and guides working there,
like a sanctuary both for the butterflies and for surrounding
communities; despite Michoacán’s being one of the most violent states in
the country because of organized crime cartels, residents of towns
overlapping the reserve said they had generally felt safe.
Image
Credit...Katie Orlinsky for The New York Times
Image
Credit...Katie Orlinsky for The New York Times
But the illusion of peace has been shattered. This year, Raúl Hernández
Romero, a sanctuary guide, and Homero Gómez González, a local politician
and manager at the reserve, were found dead within weeks of each other.
The men were devoted to the protection of the monarchs.
Image
Credit...Katie Orlinsky for The New York Times
Image
Credit...Katie Orlinsky for The New York Times
Environmental defenders in Mexico, and elsewhere in Latin America, are
increasingly under threat or attack from criminal groups, particularly
when they get in the way of the groups’ commercial interests in logging
and farming.
Image
Credit...Katie Orlinsky for The New York Times
Image
Credit...Katie Orlinsky for The New York Times
According to the Mexican Environmental Law Center, 21 environmental
activists were murdered in 2018; a separate review by the Mexican
human-rights group “All Rights for All” found that another 21 were
killed last year. The murders have illuminated the burden mostly
Indigenous, poor communities carry to conserve their environments.
Image
Credit...Katie Orlinsky for The New York Times
Much of the butterfly reserve is split into several sections, each
managed by a community called an ejido, a Mexican form of collective
land management.
Image
Credit...Katie Orlinsky for The New York Times
“What we are interested in is taking care of ourselves — being
autonomous,” said Paulino Guzmán González, a guide at El Rosario Monarch
Butterfly Sanctuary, one of the sections, said. El Rosario is an ejido
of about 1,000 people in the Michoacán highlands. Members work as guides
and in other jobs at the sanctuary.
Image
Credit...Katie Orlinsky for The New York Times
Once the butterfly migration and the influx of tourists — up to 150,000
in a season — end, residents do reforestation work for the government
for about 200 pesos, or $8, a day, and occasional, equally low-paid work
in state-approved logging. More often than not, they migrate to Mexico
City or the United States for jobs.
The Mexican government and international organizations like the World
Wildlife Fund support and put pressure on the ejidos to protect their
habitat, and residents willingly do the work, planting trees and tending
to diseased older ones. As a member of the ejido said, “We need the
forest to survive.”
Image
Credit...Katie Orlinsky for The New York Times
Alexis Okeowo (-at-alexis_ok) is a staff writer at The New Yorker. Katie
Orlinsky (-at-KatieOrlinsky) is a freelance photographer.
The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the
editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our
articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters-at-nytimes.com.
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