This a documentary story of important fieldwork we did in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (Reserva de la Biósfera Santuario Mariposa Monarca) in Michoacán, Mexico in 2022.
Together with an engineer, two photographers, two ecologists and the head of the project Jose Luis Alvarez we monitored a big reforestation project for an endangered butterfly called Mariposa Monarca who travels every year from Canada to Mexico to reproduce and hibernate. It was an adventurous trip what gave me a lot of insight in local Mexican life. Jose Luis has a pine tree nursery and provides the project from trees to be planted.

I was super impressed by the amount of butterlfies Ive seen all at once. Wauw so so many, also when you think of this little vulnerable insect what has to travel around 160km a day for a total of 4500km trip to be warm and survive in the winter. I can really relate to them and their desire to be warm 😉 We have been visiting sites where they been planting trees every year to monitor the progress. Some pieces of forrest where burned, other pieces had traces of illegal logging. Some places where not accessible because of danger from local authorities. I do think that here the seed was planted for me to engage more with ecology instead. This is an important story that need to be told and shared.

Thanks to @forestsofmariposa the butterfly is able to have a bigger domicile to live in. In 26 years they planted around 20 million trees with the help of the local population. If they don’t continue taking care of these forrest this beautiful butterfly will migrate to another place or possibly will become extinct. If you wish to support this project you can invest in a high quality print on birch wood made by me. Think about it and let me know 😉