Leonardo DiCaprio shares the work of UMSNH researchers to conserve monarch forests in Michoacán, México

The article exposes the problem of deforestation caused by the felling of trees in the municipality of Angangueo, Michoacán, México, where 10 hectares of forest were devastated on the slopes of the central zone of the Monarca reserve.

(MORELIA, MICHOACAN – TYT).- American actor and Academy Award winner Leonardo DiCaprio, known for his activism in favor of the environment, published an article on his social networks about the work of researchers from the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo (UMSNH), for the conservation of forests in the eastern part of the state, home of the Monarch Butterfly.

The Oscar winner, who has also raised concerns about the plight of the vaquita in the Gulf of Mexico, shared a post from Mongabay, a US-based nonprofit environmental science and conservation news platform, which collects the work of members of the UMSNH Natural Resources Research Institute (Inirena) to preserve the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve.

https://t.co/bkFFOnfEDP

— Leonardo DiCaprio (@LeoDiCaprio) January 24, 2022

In the publication, doctors from Inirena, Cuauhtémoc Sáenz-Romero and José Arnulfo Blanco García, detail the restoration plan to recover and maintain endemic trees in the region that serve as habitat for Monarch Butterflies every winter.

The team employs a combination of natural restoration, soil conservation and active reforestation that has so far achieved a survival rate of 83 to 84 percent, at least three times more successful than some government reforestation programs, Mongabay says.

According to Dr. Cuauhtémoc Sáenz-Romero, one of the project researchers, the forests where Monarch Butterfly colonies are found are becoming more susceptible to climatic events due to unusual foliage loss and increased tree mortality. 

Researchers have begun to implement “assisted migration” of Oyamel fir trees to higher altitudes in the reserve, where they can better withstand changing climatic conditions.

TYT Newsroom