In its first round of funding, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) is allocating $3.3 million in 22 grants to save the monarch butterfly.
The funding, which will be matched by more than $6.7 million in grantee contributions, will come from the Monarch Butterfly Conservation Fund NFWF launched earlier this year to restore the butterfly population.
The agency said the butterfly population has plunged from 1 billion to fewer than 60 million over the last 20 years due to a number of factors, including the loss of critical habitat. Monarch butterflies, which migrate up to 3,0000 miles from Mexico north to the U.S. and Canada and back again, depend not only on nectar-producing plants throughout their range, but also milkweed — the primary food source for monarch caterpillars.
NFWF said a part of the grant funding came from Monsanto, which produces the popular herbicide known as Roundup Ready that’s been linked to the destruction of milkweed.
“We are committed to helping monarch butterflies rebound and value this opportunity to partner with others to improve critical habitat,” Brett Begemann, Mondanto’s president and COO, said in a news release. “We believe that commitment to environmental sustainability and land productivity are compatible objectives.”