Current
Projects:
Alternare |
Forest and Butterfly Colony Monitoring |
Environmental Education
Past
Projects:
Research Grants: Current / 2000-2004 |
Grants and Development
Support for Revision 1998-2000
| Book Translation 1999
Alternare is a Mexican non-profit organization that works in close partnership with campesinos in the monarch wintering areas to promote sustainable and adequate food production, forest conservation, and environmentally sound economic activities. They have almost completed a center just outside of Angangueo, where they conduct training sessions for campesino instructors. These instructors work with Alternare personnel in subsequent sessions in the communities and ejidos. For more information on Alternare, visit their website at www.alternare.org, or see pictures from Mike Quinn’s recent visit to an Alternare training session at www.texasento.net/alternare.htm. Click here to access a document summarizing Alternare's activities.
MBSF has supported Alternare’s efforts for the past five years, providing a total of $14,400. We hope to increase our support to at least $5000 in 2005.
Forest
and Butterfly Colony Monitoring
The
mosaic image created to design
the Monarch Biosphere Reserve that was decreed
in November, 2000 has now become the starting point for a joint
MBSF-WWF-NASA-UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico) project.
The mosaic has been integrated into a Geographic Information System (GIS)
and we are now in the process of creating multiple layers of information.
The advantage of GIS is that it allows putting together unlimited layers
of different sets of information that can be easily accessed and examined
from multiple points of view, including ecology, land ownership, logging,
etc. The layers can be placed on the mosaic singly or in combinations,
and include all known monarch colony locations, colony areas, tree densities,
local land ownership, watersheds, altitudes, slope exposures, degree of
forest degradation, exact boundary positions of the new reserve’s
core and buffer zones, and a host of other information.
One of our goals is to assemble available Landsat and other satellite images dating back to the early 1970's to document and quantify forest degradation throughout the overwintering region in the states of Mexico and Michoacan. A collaborative research team is now working on the project. The team includes our own Dr. Lincoln Brower, NASA scientist Compton Tucker, his pre-doctoral student Dan Slayback, David Perault, GIS expert at Lunchburg College and his student David Newman. Jordi Honey-Roses from the WWF Mexico program, helped the team obtain extensive Global Positioning location data in the butterfly area and has collaborated on the mutual mapping research along with UNAM Geography Department colleagues Armando Peralta, Jose Lopez, and Isabel Ramirez. The team visited three overwintering colonies above 3100 meters, including Cerro Pelón, Rosario and Sierra Chincua (the latter three times), obtained latitude and longitude data along roads into the overwintering areas and recorded exact positions of current extensive illegal logging activities.
Currently they are putting this information together utilizing the digital mosaic and satellite images. Exciting new insights are emerging as we place exact colony areas and positions on the maps and reference them to slope exposure, altitudes, watershed courses, and forest degradation. WWF authorized another digital coverage in February of this year with an upgraded aerial camera that has higher digital resolution than the camera used on the 1999 and 2001 flights. The images are spectacular, and butterfly colonies are easily seen. We are in the process of obtaining the digital files of these images, and anticipate that we will be able to map exact positions and sizes of the colonies directly and compare them with GPS positions and colony areas that we measured on the ground. If this proves successful, it is likely that more extensive photogrammetry combined with satellite image analyses in the GIS will allow us to locate as yet unknown colonies in the area and in other potential overwintering forest sites in Mexico. We also hope to contract with the IKONOS satellite company to obtain very high resolution images of larger areas than can be obtained with the aerial flights.
We anticipate further insights
into understanding the relationship of the monarch to the all-important
Oyamel forest ecosystem. We will also provide WWF-Mexico and the Mexican
government with information pinpointing exact locations of illegal logging
activities, access roads used by the loggers, and prioritize forest management
recommendations so that the Mexican authorities can more effectively enforce
existing logging laws and regulations. All indications are that the intensity
of illegal logging is increasing and becoming a very serious threat to
the future of monarch butterflies overwintering in Mexico.
Environmental
Education
MBSF has supported several environmental efforts within and around the Monarch Butterfly Reserve. This is fitting, since a large part of our annual donations come from school children in the US who participate in the Journey North symbolic migration. These projects include MBSF projects and projects being conducted by other groups.
MBSF's Environmental Education Manual: In 2004, the first part of our environmental manual for schools (The Monarch Butterfly: Uniting a Continent/La mariposa monarca:uniendo un continente) was completed! After years of hard work, translating, editing and designing, MBSF’s manual for the schools in the Reserve is finished. Full of stunning pictures and detailed descriptions on the monarch’s life cycle and migration, as well as facts about the forest, the history of the reserve and butterflies in Mexican culture, it will provide a lot of useful information for teachers and everyone else who is interested in monarchs. We are now in the process of editing the second part of the manual, which includes lessons for the teachers to use as a complement to the information in the first part. Funding to develop the manual was provided by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Monarchs in the Classroom and Journey North. The primary goal of this effort is to develop knowledge of and pride in a shared international treasure, the monarch butterfly overwintering sites in Mexico.
So far we have distributed over 600 Spanish copies of the manual in schools and communities in the Monarch Reserve. Ejido San Mateo, which owns land on which the Herrada colony overwinters, plans to buy these books at our printing cost to sell to tourists, and we hope to form similar agreements with other ejidos and communities. All of the money they use to purchase materials will go directly into future MBSF projects. We have printed our monarch life cycle cards (see www.monarchlab.org) in Spanish, and will give them to guides to use in educating tourists about monarch biology. We have almost completed a Spanish companion to our Uniting a Continent book that includes lessons for classrooms, and will distribute these to schools and communities
Many programs use monarchs to help students learn scientific concepts and conservation principles. The importance of intact overwintering sites to the survival of the eastern North American migratory population is an important component of all of these projects. However, there have been few efforts to bring these materials into schools near the overwintering sanctuaries, even though these students live in the forests on which eastern North American monarchs depend. MBSF initiated an effort to develop materials that specifically address the educational needs of schools in the Monarch Reserves which culminated in this manual. It is available in English and Spanish and will be distributed in schools in Mexico, the U.S. and Canada. You can also receive a copy with a donation of $50 or more or you can purchase them for $9.00 from Monarchs in the Classroom.
Biocenosis: MBSF has worked for several years with Eligio Garcia Serrano, who has opened a new office of the Mexican conservation organization Biocenosis: Biocenosis AC Region Monarca. Eligio, along with Betty Solis Suarez and Carole Jordan, are working with schools with land in the Monarch Reserve. They visit schools every day for a week, presenting an entire series of lessons on monarchs; interactions between plants and animals (including humans) and the importance of natural resources to the local communities. They are planning an exposition this spring to showcase their work and the subjects they teach in schools, and will invite teachers, students, school administrators and community members. MBSF hopes to work with Biocenosis to produce a video to use in these lessons, provide additional books for their use in schools, and help to increase their capacity to offer more workshops.
Workshops
for Teachers and Guides: MBSF is spearheading
a collaborative effort with Biocenosis, personnel in the Monarch Reserve
and other individuals to conduct two series of workshops, one for teachers
in the Reserve and another for community members who act as guides for
tourists. In 2005, we will conduct at least one pilot workshop, and follow-up
with all participants.
In 2005, MBSF has committed to supporting continued research on relationships between local and migratory monarch populations in Mexico. We have developed a strong collaborative relationship with Dr. Isabel Ramirez of UNAM, and hope to support at least three of her students who are studying the relationship between logging and road presence in the overwintering forests, the microclimatic conditions in overwintering sites, and forest change in colonies that are not part of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve.
For the past seven years, MBSF has supported a variety of research projects conducted by Mexican students and organizations. All of the projects are focused on topics relevant to monarch and forest conservation. From 1998 through 2001, we provided $26,000 to WWF-Mexico to support their research on the most effective size and configuration of the Monarch Reserve. We have supported Mexican students studying forest regeneration and structure, the effectiveness of direct payment programs to support forest conservation, relationships between local and migratory monarch butterfly populations, and monarch physiology with individual grants and fellowships ranging from $2500 to $3100. In addition, we have worked with NASA and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) to map monarch colonies and forest conditions using satellite images and GIS technology. All of these grants have two important outcomes; they support important research and also develop research and educational capacity in Mexico.
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Genetic structure of the North American migratory local populations of monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus L.) in Mexico: Genetic bases for the conservation of the migratory phenomenon in Mexico
Eneida Montesinos
I
propose to determine the genetic variability, the levels of differentiation
and the degree of genetic flow between the migratory population that hibernates
in our country and the local or resident populations that exist in Mexico.
This research arose because of many unknowns about the genetic structure
of monarch populations: Are the butterflies that hibernate in different
localities of our country part of one interbreeding population or are
there diverse populations? Are there migratory monarchs that do not complete
the remigration trip to southern U.S.? If these butterflies exist, are
they forming local populations in Mexico or do they interbreed with the
resident populations that exist in Mexico? Is the genetic structure of
the populations of local monarchs changing due to the presence of the
overwintering monarchs? Is the genetic variability between resident populations
bigger as the degree of interaction with overwintering monarchs increases?
Learning the answers to these questions will contribute important knowledge to our conservation attempts. It is possible that some overwintering monarchs are not able to complete the remigration trip to the southern US because they do not posses sufficient energetic reserves (Alonso-Mejía et al. 1997). This may result from the fact that the oyamel forests where the monarchs overwinter do not provide climatic conditions that allow lipid conservation. In open forests monarchs spend their lipid reserves faster and are thus unable make the trip back to the reproduction areas in southern US (Rendón-Salinas 1997, Alonso-Mejía et al. 1997).
In Mexico there are several local populations of monarch butterflies in the states of Morelos (De la Maza, 1975), México, Guerrero, Chiapas y San Luis Potosí. These monarchs do not present the behavior or the physiological characteristics of diapause that characterize migratory butterflies. There is no real evidence for genetic interchange between the local and migratory populations. De la Maza (1995) suggests that there is an altitudinal barrier between the two populations, and reproductive diapause in migratory monarchs would cause a physiological barrier between the two populations.
However, if overwintering butterflies do not posses sufficient lipids for the remigration, they will need to choose between surviving and reproduction. It is thus possible that these butterflies oviposit in sites close to the overwintering sites where their host plants, Asclepias spp., exist. If this is the case, gene flow between the local butterflies in Mexico and the migratory butterflies could occur. The degree of gene flow between the two populations may correlate with the abundance of monarchs that cannot complete their remigration trip due to an excessive expenditure of lipids. This knowledge can serve to motivate the participation of researchers, authorities and inhabitants to act to conserve the oyamel forests where the monarch overwinters. In addition, it will encourage forest management that conserves the environmental conditions that the monarch requires for lipid conservation.
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Direct
Payments for Conservation:
Lessons from the Monarch Butterfly Conservation Fund
Mónica Missrie
After
all these years working with WWF and MBSF it was inevitable, my graduate
studies focused on the monarchs and in particular the Monarch Conservation
Fund that I helped establish. Thanks to the support from MBSF’s
generous donors I received a fellowship and two grants that enabled me
to complete my Master’s Degree in Conservation Biology with a paper
titled “Direct Payments for Conservation: Lessons from the Monarch
Butterfly Conservation Fund”. With my research I was able to document
and evaluate how the fund that pays campesinos to conserve the
forest by forgoing their logging rights is working in practice. I am currently
working on a new version for journal submission but you can read my working
draft by clicking here or
on the Monarch Butterfly Conservation Fund link on the left hand bar of
our home page.
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Performance
of overwintering monarchs in relation to forest
structure
Eduardo Rendón Salinas
In
previous research, I have studied forest structure and dynamics in five
permanent 0.25 ha squares established in Sierra Chincua in Mich., Mexico.
I showed that the forest is structured by complex populations made up
of different cohorts that reflect the effects of forest use. My work suggests
that the forests have experienced intense disturbance patterns. I will
combine this knowledge with a study of the performance of overwintering
monarchs to determine forest structure that favors successful overwintering.
Monarch performance will be assayed using two measures: the number of
butterflies "dead without apparent cause" on the forest floor
(DWAC), and the "energetic expenditures" that butterflies experience
during their stay in Mexico. Once favorable structures for the butterflies
are determined, I will use a population model generated from a demographic
study of oyamel firs and integrate the results to project the habitat
most favorable to migratory monarchs conservation.
Preliminary work indicates that forest structure is a determining factor in butterfly performance during their stay in the Mexican oyamel forests. Our studies of DWAC butterflies indicate that forest quality affects the intensity of this mortality in different colonies. However, this conclusion is based on samples taken in one month and need to be validated with studies over the entire overwintering period. In addition, the forests were characterized based only on the trees present, and it is possible that understory characteristics, particularly density, affect butterfly mortality. I propose a stratified sampling that considers mortality in relation to both canopy and understory plants during the entire four months of hibernation.
Eduardo’s Model
Figura 1. Se pretende integrar el conocimiento acerca del desempeño de las monarcas hibernantes con la creación de un modelo poblacional del oyamel que permita la simulación de escenarios forestales para la planeación de un programa de manejo silvícola, encaminado a la conservación de la hibernación en el Área Natural Protegida de la Mariposas Monarca (a). Se enlistan los temas en los que se han obtenido resultados durante el primer año de estudio del proyecto (b).
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Genetic and Successional Patterns in the Abies forests of Northern Mexico
Andres Keiman
Monarch
butterflies overwinter in forests in central Mexico in which the dominant
speces are firs in the genus Abies. This genus includes about eight
species in Mexico, four of which are found in the northern part of the
country, Abies concolor, A. durangensis, A. durangesis
var. coahuilensis and A. vejari. Preliminary isoenzyme analyses
of several Abies populations show relatively low levels of genetic
variance in comparison to other species in the Abies genus and
other conifers. This suggests that Abies populations were affected
in the not so distant past by bottleneck events or founder effects, causing
a reduction in the effective sizes of the populations. For this reason
is imperative to conserve the highest quantity possible of populations
through wise forest management practices.
In this study, I propose to add to the genetic data by studying successional dynamics in the oyamel forest of the Monarch Butterfly Special Biosphere Reserve. My study will address the following questions: What are the characteristics in which the forest will regenerate? How long will it take for the disturbed portion of the forest to close? What density conditions are necessary to obtain maximum yield in the less time possible? Obtaining these answers facilitates the calibration of forest growth models and the definition of management strategies for the forest. Knowing the regeneration processes makes it possible to establish mechanisms that allow for the conservation of the forest and with that prolong the migratory phenomena of the monarch butterfly.
The specific objectives of the proposed work are to:
- Determine the abundance and biomass of Abies religiosa in patches of different ages in the Monarch Butterfly Special Biosphere Reserve.
- Reconstruct the dynamics of occupation and subsequent autoclearing caused by density-dependent competition in the sequence of patches of different ages.
- Obtain the intraspecific allometric relationship between the mass and population density of Abies religiosa.
- Use the data to calibrate a forest growth model and simulate forest management strategies congruent with forest dynamics.
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Micro-enterprise development
- An export business in Ejido Los Remedios: hand-made baskets woven from pine needles
- A printing machine for Ejido Cerro Prieto
- A
welcoming sign at the Ejido El Rosario preserve
An export business in Ejido Los Remedios: hand-made baskets woven from pine needles
Hand-made
baskets woven from pine needles are a traditional craft of women in the
monarch sanctuary region. MBSF is working with the women in a local ejido,
Los Remedios, to help them establish an export business and sell these
crafts as a new source of income. Los Remedios owns land in Sierra Chincua,
the largest monarch sanctuary in the world. The people of the region are
among the poorest in our Hemisphere. Here, a typical family of eight lives
on only 60 pesos per day, roughly $6 U.S. dollars. When the sanctuaries
were established in 1986, these people lost full rights to use forest
products from their own land, and they were not compensated by the government.
Thus the sale of these baskets, and ultimately other products, can provide
an alternative source of income, and help take the logging pressure off
the monarch's fir forest.
MBSF is the ejido women's
" first customer". We are purchasing baskets from them for use
as premiums for MBSF donors. We are
also helping the community secure assistance from rural development experts
with expertise in teaching ejidos how to form cooperatives and run their
own businesses.
A printing machine for Ejido Cerro Prieto
Eligio
Garcia (see picture, right - center), a monarch biologist and employee
of the National Institute of Ecology in Mexico, is conducting courses
to train young members of the ejidos in the Monarch Butterlfy Reserve.
These courses train the campesinos in management practices that promote
natural resource conservation. A main goal is to promote work alternatives
that will improve the social conditions of the ejidos; to this end, participants
develop an economic program at the end of their three year course. A group
of young people from Ejido Cerro Prieto, which owns land in Sierra Chincua,
have developed a printing shop as a job alternative. During the tourist
season they will print t-shirts to be sold to tourists, and during the
rest of the year they will create postcards, posters, and photos. They
will also be trained in paper recycling to make cards. As they reap the
benefits of a program that depends on the preservation of the overwintering
sites, these young people will promote environmental education and conservation
in the Monarch Butterfly Reserve.
Through Sr. Garcia, the Ejido has requested funds from MBSF for help in setting up printing shop to be used by campesino technicians. The shop will be installed in the Llano de las Papas research station laboratory, in the Chincua Reserve, and will be used by the group of young campesinos interested in printing work. MBSF has agreed to fund a machine used to print T-shirts, bags, and sweatshirts. The cost of the machine is $1300. Earlier this winter, the group needed to borrow the machine, and could only print 100 items for the 1999-2000 season.
A welcoming sign at the Ejido El Rosario preserve
The members of the Ejido El Rosario, that own land at the El Rosario monarch sanctuary, proposed to create and install a sign welcoming visitors to their land. This sign warns people to be respectful of the butterflies by keeping silent and not throwing garbage. This proposal is a collaborative effort between the members of the ejido and biologists from the National University of Mexico. MBSF provided $230 for the construction of this sign pictured below
Support for Revision of the Protected Areas in Mexico
In early 1998, WWF-Mexico (World Wildlife Fund) and INE (the Mexican National Institute of Ecology) agreed to collaborate in redefining the Natural Protected Area for the monarch butterfly sanctuaries. This agreement stemmed from priorities identified during the North American Conference on the Monarch Butterfly (see below).
MBSF and WWF initiated a joint effort to promote an ecosystem-based monarch conservation plan. The plan will provide a tool for Mexican environmental authorities as they revise the 1986 Presidential Decree that established the sanctuaries. Our objective is for the Monarch Sanctuaries to be established by solid biological criteria, protected by a legal framework and supported by local communities who benefit from the Sanctuaries. To reach this objective, we are: 1) determining the habitat required for the long-term protection of the monarch’s migratory phenomenon using a Geographic Information System (GIS) model and an analysis of biological data, and 2) delineating existing conservation areas and proposing new areas congruent with the needs of overwintering monarchs.
In October and again in December 1998, 20 monarch scientists and conservationists, including MBSF’s Lincoln Brower and Monica Missrie, gathered for a workshop with the goal of attaining consensus on a plan to redesign the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. MBSF provided economic, scientific and technical assistance throughout the process.
The final product of this effort is a GIS model/map that consists of multiple data layers from which were derived a new reserve boundary based on up-to-date knowledge of the monarchs' overwintering biology, watersheds, forest status, and the Oyamel ecosystem.
After a year of work on the
model, we presented a final proposal to INE in January 2000. Mexican authorities
have provided information on land tenure to allow consideration of human
land use as well as monarch requirements. This will help them negotiate
new protected areas with land owners. We will now support the authorities
as they negotiate with the senators that need to approve the proposal
and with the local people. When all parties are in agreement, President
Zedillo will be able to modify the existing decree using informed scientific
guidelines.
Book Translation
Our board member, Monica Missrie, translated MBSF Chairman Dr. Lincoln Brower's review paper of monarch migration into Spanish. The Mexican Institute of National Ecology (INE) issued the translation as a paperback book:
Brower, L.P. (1999). Para comprender la migracion de la mariposa monarca (1857-1995). Instituto Nacional de Ecología, Mexico, D.F. pp 1-141.
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