▲ Monarch butterfly sanctuaries in the Chincua mountain range, municipality of Angangueo, Michoacán.Photo Jair Cabrera Torres
Israel Davila
Correspondent
La Jornada Newspaper
Wednesday, November 26, 2025, p. 24
Toluca, Mex., Mexico will make an energetic and collaborative call to the United States to act responsibly in the conservation of the monarch butterfly, since if they continue using herbicides and pesticides that affect this species on its migratory route, it is likely that in a few years they will no longer reach the forests in the center of the country, warned Pedro Álvarez de Icaza, head of the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas.
By participating in the first national summit for the conservation of the monarch butterfly, the official called on the three levels of government to strengthen the protection mechanisms for its habitat and recognized that now, it not only comes to hibernate in the six sanctuaries located in the biosphere between Michoacán and the state of Mexico, since colonies have been detected in other forested areas of central Mexico.
In that sense, he considered the work being carried out to conserve and protect the Agua Forest, located between the state of Mexico and Morelos, to be essential, since the arrival of this lepidopteran has also been confirmed there.
Álvarez de Icaza stressed that the great risks faced by the monarch butterfly and its hibernation phenomenon are climate change, illegal deforestation and the indiscriminate use of pesticides and herbicides, mainly in the central area of the United States, where the butterfly travels on its 4 thousand kilometer route from Canada to the forests of Mexico.
He explained that the monocultures that exist throughout the central area of the United States use a lot of pesticides that negatively impact this species and this can alter its route or completely end the migratory phenomenon that dates back hundreds of years from Canada to Mexico.
For this reason, he said, at the next trilateral summit between Mexico, Canada and the United States, an energetic, but respectful and collaborative call will be made to the neighboring country to the north to stop using this type of products that affect the monarch, or to replace them with others that do not affect it.
He highlighted that in Mexico important efforts continue to be made to conserve lepidopteran habitat; He gave as an example that in the last year the impact due to illegal logging in the forests where the monarch arrives was only 2.5 hectares.
Conservation efforts
He acknowledged that now this species not only reaches the six biosphere sanctuaries (three in Michoacán and three in the state of Mexico), but has also been detected in other protected natural areas such as the forests of Nevado de Toluca, Valle de Bravo and even some of Morelos.
He specified that in total there are 45 protected natural areas that are involved in the preservation of the monarch in the country and pointed out that in all of them special care must be taken for their conservation through the 121 agricultural centers involved in their preservation.
