“It’s the ambition of avocado,” he said.

That ambition could soon increase. Zitácuaro, the municipality surrounding Apútzio, is in the process of seeking certification to export avocados to the United States — a fact that is on the lips of every farmer.

Certification is awarded municipality by municipality, and not all of Michoacán can export avocados. As it stands, some of Apútzio’s avocados are sold to buyers from Uruapan — a town 100 miles west that is the heart of the industry — who pass them off as having been grown there.

Deforestation in Apútzio is a recent problem and far less extensive than in other areas of Michoacán, experts said. But “it is becoming a significant problem,” given the area’s proximity to the monarchs’ habitat, said Edgar González Godoy, director in Mexico of the New York-based Rainforest Alliance.

Efforts to fight deforestation in the reserve focus on about 34,000 acres around where the butterflies roost. Programs run by the World Wildlife Fund and other organizations have helped cut logging from hundreds of acres each year to just 28 so far this year, said the fund’s Mr. Vidal.