Illegal deforestation detected in butterfly reserve in Mexico: WWF

Illegal deforestation in a natural reserve destined to harbor monarch butterflies in the southeastern Mexican state of Michoacan has destroyed 19 hectares of woods, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said Tuesday.

A total of 21.01 hectares of woodland inside the community of San Felipe de los Alzati within the monarch butterfly reserve have been lost, with others being lost due to drought, pests and landslides, the WWF report said, which presented the results of its 2014-2015 monitoring of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve.

The report, co-written with Telcel and the National Autonomous University of Mexico's Institute of Biology, all members of the Monarch Fund, found 96 percent of the reserve in San Felipe de los Alzati were affected by illegal logging.

"It is therefore crucial that authorities increase their vigilance and increase dialogue with this community to understand the causes and stop this degradation," said Omar Vidal, director general of WWF-Mexico.

He said the majority of communities and landowners living in the reserve had shown their desire to help conservation efforts.

He noted that from 2001 to 2012, the community of Crescencio Morales in Michoacan had accounted for over half of illegal logging in the area. However, after receiving help from the Monarch Fund, this illicit activity in the community has almost been completely eliminated.

Millions of monarch butterflies migrate more than 4,000 km each year from Canada and the United States to the fields and woodlands of Michoacan and the State of Mexico, where over 56,000 hectares of fir, pine, cedar and oak trees await them. Endi