North American monarch conservation plan

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The monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus L.) may be the most well-known butterfly in the world. The migrations of monarch butterflies in North America to overwintering sites in Mexico and California are among the most spectacular and unusual of the world’s natural events. However, habitat loss and degradation pose threats to both the eastern and western migratory populations of North American monarchs throughout their annual cycle of breeding, migrating, and overwintering. The decline of the migratory phenomenon is certain unless these threats are addressed. Monarchs depend upon a wide range of habitats in Canada, the United States, and Mexico; thus conservation of their migratory phenomenon requires trilateral cooperation. The North American Monarch Conservation Plan (NAMCP) is intended to provide a long-term cooperative agenda for conservation of the monarch butterfly. This document summarizes evidence of the rate of habitat loss during each stage of the monarch’s annual cycle. The relatively small size of the wintering sites makes the loss of these habitats, from commercial and subsistence-scale timber harvesting in Mexico and commercial and municipal development in California, of the most immediate concern. Recent analyses of the overwintering area document an accumulated disturbance of a fifth of the forested land in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (MBBR) in Mexico from 1986 to 2006. Changing farm practices and suburbanization of agricultural land in the United States are resulting in losses of approximately 876,000 hectares/year of land that can support the host plants and nectar sources required for monarch reproduction and migration. Habitat conservation and restoration are absolutely necessary for monarch survival. Mexico, Canada, and the United States must work together to ensure that 1) sufficient suitable habitat is available on the overwintering grounds in the United States and Mexico for the populations to persist and 2) sufficient breeding and migrating habitat is available in Canada, Mexico, and the United States to maintain their current contribution to the overall North American population. The NAMCP is divided into eleven sections. The initial seven sections provide an updated account of the species and its current situation. The eighth section identifies the main causes of loss or decline and puts in perspective the ensuing sections, related to current management actions taken in each country, as well as public perception of the species. Against this background, the last section offers a list of key trinational collaborative conservation objectives and actions.

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ELECTRONIC FILE - Zoology: Invertebrates

SWAP (2/19/2016) citation (one of 2 in SWAP and corrected; need to eliminate one of them however):
[CEC] Commission for Environmental Cooperation. 2008. North American monarch conservation plan. Montreal (QC): Commission for Environmental Cooperation Secretariat, Communications Department. [accessed 2016 Jan 26]. http://www.mlmp.org/Resources/pdf/5431_Monarch_en.pdf
[better: http://www3.cec.org/islandora/en/item/2350-north-american-monarch-conser...