On July 21st, the International Union for Conservation of Nature
(IUCN) placed the migratory monarch butterfly on its Red List. This
means that the migratory monarchs – not the species as a whole – is in
danger of extinction.
It is important to make this distinction of
“migratory,” because not all monarch butterflies migrate. They are a
tropical butterfly that needs warmer climates to survive. Because their
host food (milkweed) is native to North America, the monarch butterfly
found here migrates to where the most abundant supply of food is, and
then goes back south for the winter to avoid cold temperatures.
This
migration occurs in North America, but there are stable populations of
the monarch elsewhere in the world. Until the mid-1800s, Danaus
plexippus only existed in North America, but it began to be naturalized
in the other areas. There are much smaller populations in Hawaii, New
Zealand, Australia, the Caribbean, and the Iberian Peninsula in Europe.
Despite
the monarch species being present in areas besides North America, the
Eastern migratory population is larger than all the other locations put
together. It is this group, as well as the Western population (west of
the Rockies) that has been specifically targeted for the IUCN
designation.
Further confusion about the listing is that it is by
the IUCN and not the US Fish & Wildlife Service, which has been
considering the monarch for listing under the Endangered Species Act as a
Threatened Species. The IUCN is a global organization focused on
conservation of nature and sustainable use of natural resources,
headquartered in Switzerland.
This listing by the IUCN does not
officially change anything here in the US. It doesn’t offer protection
under the law, but it does call worldwide attention to the decline the
migratory population has been in for the last 25 years or so.
In
2014, a petition was filed with the US Fish and Wildlife Service by the
Xerces Society, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Center for Food
Safety, and the late Dr. Lincoln Brower, for official listing as
Threatened. There was much disagreement among scientists and enthusiasts
alike, over whether the monarch should be listed.
In December of
2020, the USFWS issued a statement saying the listing was warranted but
precluded. What this means is that there was evidence that the monarch
should be listed, but that other species were more in need of protection
at this time and due to limited resources, the agency would be focusing
its efforts on those. They will continue to monitor the situation.
Since
the introduction of the petition in 2014, multiple efforts have been
made to help increase the population. Awareness of the effects of
non-judicious use of pesticides and the unintended consequences of such
use, the destruction of their habitat (milkweed plants), as well as
climate change, has increased.
When I spoke with Dr. Lincoln
Brower in his home in May 2017, we discussed the petition. At that time,
I was not in favor of listing the monarch. I could not imagine what
else we could be doing that we were not already doing. I also brought up
that if monarchs were listed for protection under the law, wouldn’t
milkweed also have to be protected, since that is the monarch’s only
host plant? It was complicated.
Dr. Brower listened patiently to
my reasoning. He then said something I had not thought about. “Would you
not agree that bringing the petition forward in and of itself has been a
positive thing, by spurring action toward conserving the species?” We
both smiled and I realized that that may have been the petition’s main
purpose all along.
So where does that leave us now? This statement
by the IUCN may give more teeth to the argument for listing the monarch
here in the US, as either Threatened or Endangered. It certainly will
amplify conservation efforts, just as the petition did in 2014. Even if
nothing official has changed here in the US, this is still a call to
keep up the current efforts and keep spreading the word about the need
to not only consider the monarch, but all pollinators.
As I always
say, when you help the monarchs, you provide benefit for other
pollinators. We need them, and they, as well as we, need a healthy
environment. Let’s think beyond ourselves and try harder to preserve the
world we live in for those who come after us. There are a lot of us,
and we can make a difference. Let’s make a difference for the better.