Mexico’s monarch butterfly population jumps 64%, offering hope for at-risk species | Mexico
The population of monarch butterflies in Mexico has increased by 64% this winter compared to the same period in 2025, offering a glimmer of hope for an insect thought to be in danger of extinction.
Figures released this week by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Mexico showed that the area occupied by monarchs increased from 1.79 hectares (4.42 acres) the previous winter to 2.93 hectares (7.24 acres); this was the largest forest area since 2018.
“The monarch butterfly is the symbol of the tripartite relationship between Mexico, the United States and Canada,” Mexican environment minister Alicia Bárcena Ibarra said at a news conference Tuesday. “Its conservation is a collective commitment that we must maintain for the future.”
Dozens of them every autumn millions of butterflies They travel nearly 3,000 miles from Canada, across the United States, and into the jungles of Western Mexico. There, orange beetles cover entire trees and fly through the air in spectacular fashion.
But their numbers have plummeted over the past 30 years due to a combination of deforestation, the climate crisis and habitat loss from herbicide use.
In the United States, increased use of herbicides such as glyphosate and dicamba has caused the amount of milkweed, the only plant monarch caterpillars can eat, to dramatically decrease, resulting in butterfly numbers plummeting.
Because of this decline, the Biden administration had proposed listing the monarch as threatened under the Endangered Species Act by the end of 2024, but Trump officials have since postponed the decision indefinitely. In February, two environmental groups filed a lawsuit to force the Trump administration to set a deadline for protections.
“That would be unforgivable [the monarch’s] Epic migrations will collapse because of political cowardice to enact range-wide protections for them,” said Tierra Curry, co-director of endangered species at the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups behind this campaign. lawsuit in a statement. “Even the Trump administration needs to think twice about letting these iconic butterflies fade away.”
spread in Mexico avocado cultivation The state of Michoacán has seen large areas of forest lost to illegal logging, driven in part by organized crime groups infiltrating the highly profitable avocado trade.
Compared to a peak of about 18.21 hectares (45 acres) in the winter of 1995, the area covered by monarchs in Mexico today is just a slice, well below the 6.07 hectares (15 acres) that scientists say is necessary for the species to survive.
The cartels’ involvement in logging has at times turned deadly: In 2020, Homero Gómez González, one of Mexico’s best-known monarch butterfly conservationists, was found dead; his family suspected that he had been murdered by organized crime groups aiming to clear the monarch’s living space.
Still, conservation efforts have slowed logging in recent years: from a peak of about 500 hectares (1,235 acres) of forest in 2003–2004, only 2.55 hectares (6.3 acres) were affected between February 2024 and February 2025.
“One of the great achievements of this work is the almost complete elimination of illegal logging in the core area of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve since 2008,” WWF Mexico director María José Villanueva told reporters. “This means that forests, which represent the key habitat for the monarch butterfly’s hibernation, are protected and preserved.”
