HIGHLIGHTING THE PLIGHT OF BRITISH BUTTERFLIES

The latest report, "The State of Britain's Butterflies 2007", was published by Butterfly Conservation in collaboration with the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, and summarises the findings of The State of Butterflies in Britain and Ireland book (Fox et al. 2006). The latter was based on millions of butterfly records collected by over ten thousand volunteers through the Butterflies for the New Millennium recording scheme and UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme.

The report highlights the continuing decline of Britain's butterflies, measured by the changes in their distribution and population levels and the implications for conservation. It proposed new species for inclusion in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan on the basis of rigorous analysis of these unique data sets. Since the report was published, the Government has updated the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, accepting all of the report's proposals for priority butterfly species.

Key findings include:

• Butterflies are declining rapidly: over three-quarters of our 59 resident species are declining and 5 species have become extinct.
• 21 species have declined by over 30% in the last 25 years.
• Butterflies have fared worse than birds or plants.
• Despite these losses, some threatened species have increased or stabilised due to conservation effort under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan.
• About 15 species are spreading, almost certainly due to climate change.

The State of Britain's Butterflies 2007 also stresses the important role that butterfly recording and monitoring is playing in providing a sound evidence base for policy development and scientific reseach. British Butterflies are probably the best monitored group of insects in the world and act as flagship species with wide popular appeal. Butterflies are also recognised as sensitive indicators of environmental change, including climate change, and of the health of the countryside.

It supersedes a previous report, "The State of Britain's Butterflies", published in 2001 to coincide with the publication of the critically-acclaimed Millennium Atlas of Butterflies in Britain and Ireland (Asher et al. 2001).

The books upon which these summary reports are based The State of Butterflies in Britain and Ireland (Fox et al. 2006) and The Millennium Atlas of Butterflies in Britain and Ireland (Asher et al. 2001) are available from Butterfly Conservation. Telephone 01929 400209 to order them.

Please note
The reports are made available in Adobe Acrobat® Portable Document File (PDF) format. You must have this program in order to view/print the reports. If you do not have this program it is freely available at www.adobe.com/acrobat