Recognizing the imminent threat facing one of our planet's greatest natural spectacles, La Monarca Bakery has teamed up with the ECOLIFE Foundation, one of the leading conservation organizations focused on protecting the endangered Monarch butterflies, to support ECOLIFE's two ongoing initiatives in Michoacán, Mexico, which uniquely link to help people, the Monarch butterflies and the forests:

1) Planting up to 1 million trees in the Sierra Madre Occidental Forest outside of the Monarch butterfly reserves. These trees will provide firewood for local residents without impacting the trees on which the Monarch Butterflies depend. This collaborative, trans-border approach aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, support the forests' vital ecological and economic functions and protect the Monarch butterfly.

2) Build and install highly efficient wood burning Patsari stoves for use in the homes of Michoacán's Ejido communities, to reduce the average Ejido family's wood consumption for heating and cooking. Just one stove uses 70% less firewood, greatly reducing the number of trees cut down by local families (from 40 trees annually to only 12 trees). It also reduces smoke related allergies and deaths by 40%, and reduces global footprint emissions by saving approximately 5 tons of carbon per stove annually.

Since it began its programs in Michoacán, the ECOLIFE Foundation has planted over 30,000 trees and installed over 1,000 stoves in the areas surrounding the Monarch butterfly sanctuary in Michoacán, Mexico. But there is still much more work needed in order to save the fir tree forests and with them the Monarch butterfly migration for future generations.

With the Save the Monarchs© campaign, La Monarca Bakery has teamed up with the ECOLIFE Foundation to support the ECOLIFE Foundation's programs in Michoacán. All "Save the Monarchs©" campaign initiatives will be featured in an ongoing basis at all La Monarca Bakery locations and online at both organizations' websites, with the goal to raise awareness and provide financial support to the ECOLIFE Foundation's programs in Michoacán.