Every year, millions of migrating Monarch butterflies make their way from Canada to central Mexico, where they reproduce and overwinter in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. Trouble is, 60 percent of that reserve has disappeared in the last few decades due to logging. Now Mexican officials say they are getting serious about protecting the reserve, assigning 60 inspectors to patrol for illegal loggers, many of whom are financed by urban businesses that use the wood to make boxes and pallets for the fruit and vegetable industry. Two sting operations this year, in which authorities seized some 300 truckloads of illegally logged wood, were so successful that the government decided to make the official presence permanent.
