Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (MBBR) Devastation

NOTE: Cover letters AND TRANSLATION 8-9 April 2008 from Carol Cullar who translated the Juan Elvira/SEMARNAT Documents that Professor Lincoln P. Brower received by FEDEX from Juan Elvira on 7 April 2008 in reply to my e-mail to him on 12 March 2008.

"7 April 2008

Esteemed Professor Brower,

In relation to your electronic message sent the past March 12, where you attached information on the deforestation evaluation in the nuclear zone of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve that your team accomplished during the last 4 years, please find attached information on the procedure [in the sense of "right and proper conduct"] of this Secretariat, in particular, and of the Federal Government in general in respect to the protection of the Reserve of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (MBBR), and of the winter sanctuaries of this prodigious insect.

I hope this information will be useful for strengthening the studies you and your working team have accomplished and reinforcing our support during your investigative visits to the Reserve of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere[.] I send you a cordial greeting.

Attentively,

The Consular Secretary
Engineer Juan Rafael Elvira Quesda

Information on the actions of protection and conservation in the Reserve of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (MBBR)

In the first place it is fitting to emphasize that the protection of the biological wealth of Mexico is a priority of the government of President Felipe Cauldron, including the region known as that of the Butterfly Monarch, in the states of Mexico and Michoacán, and the Butterfly Monarch as migratory species whose protection is a responsibility shared between Mexico, the United States, and Canada.

The Federal Government has put in working order distinct actions that favor the protection and conservation of this region. Among these, is the Program Against Clandestine Logging “Zero Tolerance,” instituted by the President on February 24, 2007, in an event celebrated in the Llano de las Papas, municipality of Angangueo, Michoacan, inside the Monarch Butterfly region.

Thanks to the coordination of PROFEPA with other branches of the Federal Government and state and local governments they have realized never before achieved results in the Reserve, and in 2007, attained a reduction of half the illegal logging with respect to the same period the previous year.

This was communicated to President Calderon in July of this year [2007] by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF, by its initials in English), which recognized the effectiveness of the accomplished actions to diminish illegal logging in the Reserve. WWF mentions, that in accordance with its annual report on the change in forest cover, 2006-2007, accomplished with the support of the Geographic Institute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the illegal logging in the Reserve has been diminished close to 50%, adding that 90% of those illicit forest (incursions) are located in the forests of the Community of Crecencio Morales, and its annexes of Macho de Agua, La Dieta, La Cumbre, El Lindero, and Lomas de Aparicio in the Municipality of Zitacuaro, Michoacan.

The National Commission of Protected Natural Areas, (CONANP) which has as its duty the administration of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, estimates that between 2001 and 2006 approximately 620 hectares of the 56,259 that constitute the Reserve were affected.

Said impacted area is reported in the buffer and nuclear zones of the Reserve, principally in 69.25 hectares of the designated Federal Zone which is located in the buffer zone and in the vicinity of 400 hectares [belonging to] Ejido Crescencio Morales, located inside the nuclear zone of the Reserve. This last zone registers the majority of pockets of forest transformation in the site known as Lomas de Aparicio, where the presence of an agrarian conflict between the Ejido and the community of the same name has favored the recurrence of illegal logging.

The last analysis of change in forest cover in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve projected a total of 284.4 hectares affected during the period from 2006 to 2007, of which 246.4 hectares corresponds to the community and Ejido of Crescencio Morales and the remaining 38 hectares is distributed in the rest of the Reserve.

Said analysis was realized by Dr. Jose Lopez-Garcia in August, 2007, for the Monarch Butterfly Conservation Foundation (FM), with the object of evaluating the changes in the density of forest cover in the Reserve, as much in the buffer zone as the nuclear zone, in particular in the properties that participate in FM; and to integrate those results into the evaluation process that the Technical Committee of Trust [Trustees] of FM utilizes for determining the appropriations of payments for environmental services.

The comparative analysis projected a surface change of 329.08 hectares for all the Reserve: 94.81 hectares (28.81%) distributed through the buffer zone and 234.27 hectares (71.19%) in the nuclear zone. The holdings with the most impact in the nuclear zone were Crescencio Morales, Indigenous Community Nicolas Romero, Litigiol, and El Deposito.

For the first time an analysis of the entire Reserve was included, while in previous years only the nuclear zone had been analyzed. Beginning with 2006 a new base line was established. The methodology used in these studies has not been changed in essence, continuing the comparative analysis.

The study concludes that the illegal logging was reduced in the properties/holdings subject to payments for environmental services and was recurring in some ejidos like Crecencio Morales, where the major impacts [in the sense of disease] in the nuclear zone are localized; likewise, that the detected changes in the buffer zone are in general authorized exploitations of natural resources. According to the study, it can be ascertained that the programs of conservation and pay for environmental services have been effective.

The Federal Government recognizes that the lack of distinct productive options for the exploitation of natural resources can foment the over-exploitation of this resource on the part of populations that live in the Reserve zone. For this reason, the support programs are designed to urge the development/support of local communities, especially those with major indices of marginalization and poverty.

Along side the National Forestry Commission (CONAFOR), in the framework of the For Tree Program during 2007, support in the amount of $19,400,000 correct pesos for one area of 25,324 hectares was assigned in the 10 communities that compose the Reserve. These supports benefit 38,180 persons, including almost 26,000 indigenous peoples.

Actually 4,300 hectares of the Reserve are enrolled in Pay for Environmental Services. Actions in reforestation of 1,500 hectares are also supported; for programs in sustainable forest management 8,745 hectares; in an orderly way territorial communes of 1,857 hectares; and soil restoration in 554 hectares, among other actions.

The National Commission of Protected Natural Areas, during 2007, invested more than $19 million pesos in conservation actions in the protected natural area, the monitoring of the colonies of monarch butterflies and the promoting of productive alternative actions, including the promotion of nature tourism with the direct participation of the communities that inhabit the Reserve.

In the specific case of the community and Ejido Crescencio Morales, it is necessary to mention that the agrarian conflict there made impossible the application of federal subsidy programs, nevertheless, SEMARNAT, through CONANP and CONAFOR, is carrying to the end actions to favor the conservation of forest resources of that area. These are realized with the participation of the community and the Ejido, and include reforestation, restoration of forest soils, construction and operation of an oyamel nursery, and construction of a trout farm at the express request of the community and the Ejido.

Also we have important advances in the Ecological Assessment Program of the Monarch Butterfly Region that, following the investment of 400,000 pesos, is ready and was already delivered to the Governments of the States of Mexico and Michoacan for their corresponding decree.

In as much as the actions of inspection and vigilance the Federal Government accomplished in the region, with the participation of the governments of the States of Mexico and Michoacan during 2007 more than $6 million pesos was invested in specific actions and operations where they participated, besides the Federal Parliament [Department] of Environmental Protection (PROFEPA), the General Parliament of the Republic, the Secretariat of Public Safety, the Federal Prevention Police, the General Department of Justice of the State of Mexico, and the Preventive Forestry Police of Michoacan.

In March 2007, lumber industries and farm communities of Arroyo Seco, Angangueo, El Paso y Cerro Prieto, of the municipalities of Angangueo, Aporo y Ocampo, in Michoacán, reported in writing the diminution of illegal logging up to 90%, thanks to the stamping operation in the Reserve, coordinating between PROFEPA, the Federal Preventative Police and the Forest Preventative Police of the government of Michoacan.

In 2007, inside the six municipalities that form the Reserve in Michoacan, eight operations were realized and are continued with the “filtros” [drive through checkpoints?] for [permit] seals located in Las Juntas and El Polvorin, in the municipalities of Angangueo and Zitacuaro, with a sphere of jurisdiction that includes the municipalities of Ocampo, Aporo, Senguio, Talpujahua, lrimbo, Maravatío y Tuxpan.

The actions resulted in 250 administrative proceedings [indictments] set up again from January to December of 2007, including on-cite inspection visits, transport and warehousing and alteration [milling], precautionary confiscation of 40 vehicles, 2,317 cubic meters of logged lumber, machinery and various tools.

And finally to emphasize the operation accomplished in Ciudad Hidalgo, Michoacan, December 5, 2007, giving a severe blow to the organized crime of illegal logging that preys on the forest of the monarch region, participating almost 300 individuals from the Department General of the Republic (PGR) and of the Federal Preventative Police (PFP), also groups of the State Preventative Police (PEP) supported by 60 forestry inspectors from PROFEPA. 56 individual illegal loggers were detained that were transported to Mexico City for their consignment. Besides, punishment to 19 woodcutters was realized which was successful in a historic confiscation of 6,116 cubic meters of lumber.

During 2007, in the State of Mexico three forestry operations were accomplished, 62 vigilant searches and inspection of 235 vehicles of which 7 were secured, 15 warehouse centers of primarily forestry materials were visited, a forgery [illegal permits?] was shut down, 144.8 cubic meters of logs were secured, 3 changes in soil use (permits) were inspected, six properties, 2 persons were placed at the disposition of the Public Ministry, and were included with the active participation of four Committees of Community Vigilance.

For this year of 2008, in the State of Michoacan 32 administrative procedures [indictments] have begun again in the Reserve of which four correspond to centers of transformation [sawmills] and warehousing of primarily forestry materials from Macho de Agua where more than 42 cubic meters of logs of abies and pinus were secured [confiscated], and diverse tools. In the realized actions in the transport of primarily forestry materials (157 actions), three vehicles and 33.075 cubic meters of logs have been secured.

Also 2 piles of sawdust were dismantled and one vehicle and lumber confiscated on the access road that leads from La Dieta to El Lindero, both annexes of Crescencio Morales, of the municipality of Zitacuaro, Michoacan. The corresponding criminal charges were presented before the Department General of the Republic.

In January, 2008, the PROFEPA Delegation in the State of Mexico participated in the operation that was carried out in the community of Macho de Agua, accomplishing inspections of three centers of warehousing and transformation of primarily forestry materials [sawmills]. Something more than 50 cubic meters of abies and cedar logs were confiscated, sawdust piles, two log carriers, and various tools were confiscated. In February, an operation was effected in coordination with personnel from the 22nd Military Zone, the Agency of State Security (ASE), PROBOSQUE, and PROFEPA [from the] State of Mexico, in the El Margoso location. Various tools and a shotgun were secured and one person placed at the disposition of the Federal Public Ministry.

Also 3 oversight reviews were accomplished in the locations of El Magueyal, Ejido El Deposito; El Jaral, Ejido San Joaquín Lamillas, los Jarritos, Rancho de Porfirio and El Margoso. Ejido la Mesa, also in the highway lanes of Villa Victoia-El Oro and San Jose del Rincon-El Oro. Likewise accesses and secondary roads were destroyed with the construction of berms with the assistance of the [highway department] of Zitacuaro and Villa de Allende, including 17 access roads in Crescencio Morales and ditches to limit road access were constructed in Lomas de Aparicio and Villa de Allende.

The 18th of [this past] March, the Integral Plan of Supervision to Combat Clandestine Logging of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve for 2008 was ratified with the participation of PROFEPA (General Direction of Inspection and Forest Vigilance—Michoacan and Mexico Delegations), CONANP, SEMARNAT, and CONAFOR. This Plan conjoins programs planned within the global strategy for combating illegal logging. It considers actions of inspection and vigilance and strengthening the participation of society, and promotes integration and coordination of distinct institutions of the federal and state environmental sectors for inspection and supervision, in like manner putting in effect alternative productive methods to protect and conserve the forest resources in the Reserve and critical forestry zones.

The combat of illegal logging continues to be a priority for the Federal Government because in 2008 the Program of Zero Tolerance continues in a permanent manner in the designated municipalities and controls will be maintained in La Dieta, El Polvorin, Las Juntas, Llano de las Papas and Crescencio Morales.

Additionally, distinct actions have been put in effect to strengthen the participatory vigilance and promote conservation of the forests of the Reserve, including the zones affected by illegal logging. In this manner CONAFOR, in conjunction with Pro Arbol strengthens and equips the state Webs of Watchmen, promotes the creation of new Committees of Participatory Environmental Vigilance, and directs the forces of reforestation and restoration of forest soils in the zones affected by illegal logging."