Mexico · Ocampo · See the Mexico profile
Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 76% 33/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice
WWF-Mexico's Monarch Butterfly Fund has paid ejido and community landowners in the reserve's core zone not to log oyamel fir forest since 2000; independently monitored illegal logging fell from over 2,000ha (2000-12) to under 60ha per assessment period by 2021-22.
The Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Michoacán protects oyamel fir forest where most of North America's eastern monarch population overwinters; its core zone overlaps communally owned ejido land vulnerable to illegal logging.
WWF-Mexico, FMCN, CONANP and CONAFOR created the Monarch Butterfly Fund in 2000 to pay landowners directly for not logging: initial owners received roughly US$12/m3 of unlogged timber or about US$10/hectare for conservation; the fund has since grown to $7.5M in capital and distributed $5.17M in payments across 33 core-zone properties.
Independent IUCN World Heritage Outlook monitoring shows core-zone illegal logging falling from 2,179 hectares (2000-2012) to 163 hectares (2012-2018, 38ha illegal) to 58.6 hectares (2021-2022, 13.4ha illegal); reforestation reached 1,553 hectares with 1.67 million seedlings in 2023. Overwintering colony area itself remains volatile (0.67ha low in 2013-14 to 1.79ha in 2024-25), reflecting threats beyond Mexican habitat protection alone.
IUCN's 2025 assessment rates the site's conservation outlook 'Significant Concern', citing continued small-scale illegal logging, uneven institutional presence and declining financial resources relative to need.
Philanthropic / foundation funding National / regional programmes
Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.
Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.
Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan tripled Hirkan National Park's protected relict Caspian Hyrcanian forest from 29,760 ha (2004) to over 55,000 ha (2022–23), confirmed …
Kyrgyzstan
CAREC used a Swiss Re grant to run Central Asia's first Payment for Ecosystem Services pilot in Kyrgyzstan's Chon-Aksuu watershed …
Rwanda
Rwanda's national PES mechanism since 2005: 10% of revenues from 4 national parks (~234,000 ha) redistributed to communities. US $1.55 …
Spain
Since 2003, Andalusia's government has paid shepherds a fixed bonus plus €42–90/ha to graze firebreaks; coverage grew eight-fold from 700 …
Open full copilot Grounded in cited practices — always check the sources.