Text of e-mail sent on February 4, 2005:
Dear NPR,
The National Public Radio story (morning news, 4 February 2005) on the
economics of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Mexico implied
that seasonal ecotourism provides the only forest-based income for the
local communities (called ejidos).
The story failed to mention an ongoing initiative that addresses the loss of income due to the prohibition on logging in the Reserve. In 2000, the Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature, in cooperation with World Wildlife Fund-Mexico and Mexican government entities, established a multimillion dollar fund, the interest of which is being used to purchase logging rights from Ejido communities. Thirty-one of 38 ejidos with forests inside the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve are currently receiving income for conserving their forests.
Signed,
Lincoln Brower and Linda Fink
We are both monarch butterfly scientists at Sweet Briar College in Virginia
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