"It's like Christmas in the forest." In the village of Nanacamilpa, tiny fireflies are not only helping save the towering pine and fir trees but also save communities on the outskirts of the megalopolis of Mexico City.
Thousands of these glowing insects light up the old-growth forests on reserves like the Piedra Canteada part, about 45 miles east of Mexico's sprawling capital city.
Piedra Canteada in Tlaxcala is a rural cooperative that has managed to emerge from poverty and dependence on logging with the help of the fireflies.
For years, economic forces pressured rural communities like Piedra Canteada to cut down trees and sell the logs. In 1990, community leader Genaro Rueda Lopez got the idea that forest could bring tourism revenue from campers.
Business was slow for years. That was until in 2011, community members realized that millions of fireflies that appear between June and August draw tourists from larger cities.
Five years later, the park's cabins and camp spaces are sold out weeks in advance, with the attraction especially popular among families with young children and couples seeking a romantic setting.
The cooperative of 42 families still cut some trees, but has preserved over 1,560 acres. "We log, we live from the forest, from cutting trees, but in an orderly way," said Rueda Lopez, one of the cooperative's founders. They have plans to plant over 50,000 pine trees in the areas they log each year.
Deforestation and urban growth around the world are threatening over 2,000 species of fireflies with extinction.
According to Hugo Brindis, a certified guide at Granja Salma, their operation is a reservation-only ranch and they are trying to reduce the amount of people who visit the area, maximum of 250 people on the weekends, to maintain a sustainable space in the forest.
In 1998, the co-op of Piedra Canteada acquired a small sawmill so it could sell higher-priced cut lumber instead of just logs. The sawmill gives residents jobs and income beyond the three-month firefly season.
Now, they have reduced the wood production by 60 or 70 percent to preserve the forest and have better amount of tourism. The fireflies are now their main source of income.
Source: Times Union
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