Homero Gómez González
El Rosario Monarch Reserve – Ocampo, Michoacan, Mexico (Deceased)
Homero Gómez González was a Mexican environmental activist, agricultural engineer, and politician. He was the manager of El Rosario Monarch Butterfly Preserve, a component of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. He used social media to share images of monarch butterflies. He led efforts to keep loggers out of the reserve and organized marches, demonstrations, and anti-logging patrols. He worked with the government to increase the stipend local farmers could receive for preserving trees. Gómez managed 150 hectares of reforested land. He encouraged 260 communal land owners to reforest corn fields.
González grew up in El Rosario in western Michoacán. He came from a logging family and was a logger before becoming an environmental and anti-logging activist. He was a skeptic of conservation efforts, fearful that ending logging activities would lead to poverty. He studied at Chapingo Autonomous University and became an agricultural engineer. Gómez later saw the potential for tourism and formulated the idea of a sanctuary. He collaborated with conservationists at the World Wildlife Fund and scientists.
By the early 2000s, Gómez stopped logging and convinced others when the impacts of deforestation became apparent. Logging is now illegal in Rosario. He became the municipal president and commissioner of El Rosario and was succeeded by Miguel Angel Cruz.
He was 50 years old at the time of his death. Because of his work combating illegal logging, and because Raúl Hernández Romero–another activist connected to the butterfly sanctuary–was also found dead a few days later, it has been speculated that he was targeted by organized criminals. In Germany, the first “flower field passage” against species extinction was named “González Romero Blühwiesenkorridor – Blumiger Landkreis Osnabrück” (also as a tribute to the environment activist Raúl Hernández Romero).
He was 50 years old at the time of his death. Because of his work combating illegal logging, and because Raúl Hernández Romero–another activist connected to the butterfly sanctuary–was also found dead a few days later, it has been speculated that he was targeted by organized criminals. In Germany, the first “flower field passage” against species extinction was named “González Romero Blühwiesenkorridor – Blumiger Landkreis Osnabrück” (also as a tribute to the environment activist Raúl Hernández Romero).
Poet and environmentalist Homero Aridjis stated to the Associated Press that “if they can kidnap and kill the people who work for the reserves, who is going to defend the environment in Mexico?”
Video 1) The Annual Monarch Butterfly Migration in Mexico
Video 2) Death Newsclip (Spanish with CC)
Website: El Rosario Monarch Reserve
