The annual Monarch butterfly migration is one of nature’s great spectacles and a top attraction for visitors to Mexico’s central highlands. Each year, millions of Monarch Butterflies make the journey from eastern Canada to the forests of western central Mexico, a journey that spans up to 3,000 miles. The Monarch butterflies spend their winter hibernation clustered in small areas of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Michoacan, before they travel to the north again.
The Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (Spanish: Reserva de Biosfera de la Mariposa Monarca) is a World Heritage Site containing most of the over-wintering sites of the eastern population of the monarch butterfly. The reserve is located in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt pine-oak forests ecoregion on the border of Michoacán and State of Mexico, 100 km (62 miles), northwest of Mexico City. Millions of butterflies arrive in the reserve annually. Butterflies only inhabit a fraction of the 56,000 hectares of the reserve from October–March. The biosphere’s mission is to protect the butterfly species and its habitat.
Most of the over-wintering monarchs from eastern North America are found here. Western researchers discovered these areas in 1975. Presidential decrees in the 1980s and 2000 designated these still privately held areas as a federal reserve. The Reserve was declared a Biosphere Reserve in 1980 and a World Heritage Site in 2008. The reserve remains predominantly rural. Reserve administrators continue to be concerned with deleterious effects of illegal logging and tourism. Conservation efforts sometimes conflict with the interests of local farmers, community-based landowners, private land owners and indigenous people.
Located in the mountains of Michoacán state about 100 km northwest of Mexico City, the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve offers an amazing spectacle featuring millions of butterflies that gather there each winter, bending the oyamel pine branches under their weight. In 2008, this site of outstanding ecological value was declared a Unesco biosphere reserve, helping to protect the overwintering zones essential to the monarch butterfly. Here they find the conditions they need to survive, thanks to the microclimate created by the forest canopy.
Reference:
1. touropia
2. wikipedia
3. humanima
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