16 December 2009

A top wildlife award has been given to Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor at The Independent. He has received the Marsh Award for the Promotion of Lepidoptera Conservation in recognition of his passion, knowledge and dedication in publicising conservation issues for butterflies and moths.

McCarthy was presented with the award at Butterfly Conservation’s Annual General Meeting and Members’ Day held at Winchester University on 21 November. The award seeks to recognise unsung heroes who all aim to improve the world we live in and this is the first time it has been won by a journalist.

Michael has always had a passion for butterflies and this year persuaded his editor to run a regular series on butterflies through the summer, under a project known as the Great British Butterfly Hunt. This project entailed Michael travelling the country to see every British species and writing up his findings in regular features in the paper. But this is not purely a cosmetic exercise to show pretty pictures, because Mike is using the articles to highlight the decline of butterflies and show how each species is being affected by human activities such as farming, forestry and man-induced climate change.

Dr Martin Warren, Chief Executive of Butterfly Conservation, said: “Mike McCarthy is a very worthy winner of this award. His work has resulted in hundreds of column inches of first rate coverage for Lepidoptera in one of our leading newspapers. He has done a great job of highlighting the beauty of British butterflies as well as drawing attention to their alarming decline. It is wonderful to see a journalist winning this award and we are very grateful to Mike for all his hard work”.

As part of Mike’s project, he arranged for the paper to produce a large colour wall-chart showing every British species, which was inserted free in the issue just before Easter. A committed conservationist, Mike has been at The Independent for many years and uses his position to promote conservation issues for Lepidoptera and other wildlife. He recently wrote a book entitled Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo highlighting the plight of woodland birds. He is now doing the same for butterflies.

The Marsh Lepidoptera Awards, run in association with Butterfly Conservation, recognise outstanding contributions to the promotion of Lepidoptera conservation by either an individual or an organisation.

Brian Marsh OBE, Chairman of the Marsh Christian Trust, said: “We are delighted to work with Butterfly Conservation on these Marsh Awards. The presence of butterflies and moths in our gardens and countryside is taken for granted by most of us, but their future existence is by no means certain, with too many species already extinct or threatened with extinction. It is thanks to the work of the Award winners that we have a greater appreciation and understanding of these fragile creatures and their role in our ecology.”

Other winners this year include Dr John Langmaid, a retired general medical practitioner and one of the UK’s leading amateur Lepidopterists, who has been selected for the Marsh Award for Lifetime Achievement in Lepidoptera Conservation. A new European Award has been given to Dr Otakar Kudrna, a Czech entomologist who has spent a lifetime studying European Lepidoptera and publishing eminent papers, including the Mapping European Butterflies project. Previous award winners include Jeremy Thomas, Professor of Ecology at Oxford University and the RSPB.