IARN — Last month, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classified the migratory North American monarch butterfly as endangered. This decision comes after estimates showed that there’s been a 22-72% decline in adult monarchs over the past decade. The western population is at the greatest risk of extinction, with estimates showing a decrease from as many as 10 million to 1,914 butterflies between the 1980s and 2021, a 99.9% decrease. However, while the IUCN provides information to support conservation efforts globally, its recommendations have no regulatory authority in the U.S.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) does have regulatory authority through the Endangered Species Act to determine if the monarch should be classified as endangered in the U.S. The USFWS did determine that the monarch should be listed under the Endangered Species Act a couple years ago, but the listing was precluded because there were other species with higher priority and there was significant monarch conservation already being implemented throughout the country. As a result, the USFWS said it anticipated reviewing the monarch’s status in 2024. Nicole Shimp of the Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium said that, while the IUCN’s decision brought a lot of attention to monarchs, we still don’t have any listing here in the U.S.
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