Frances Wilder, Policy Manager for Butterfly Conservation, leads on applying evidence and data to deliver policy solutions that will deliver our vision of a world where butterflies and moths thrive. In this blog, Frances discusses the importance of setting targets within the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy.
Targets – There’s not much point in a strategy that doesn’t set clear goals that are meaningful and measurable. We need the Strategy to set ambitious, specific targets that will drive nature’s recovery by 2045. And we need them to be legally binding.
A strong, comprehensive, and clear set of targets could drive accountability and action for environmental improvement. It could also set an important benchmark for translating international commitments into domestic legal requirements, particularly for biodiversity. At the very least it could let us judge whether what we are doing is working or not!
The main aim of a targets framework should be to ensure that adequate measures are in place to achieve environmental recovery by setting a clear and legally enforceable structure for accountability in each of the priority areas. To achieve this, there should be a very clear set of “outcome” targets that can accurately describe the state of the fundamental features of the natural environment in each priority area. But in order to be able to set and monitor targets, you need data.
Butterfly Conservation had led on developing monitoring schemes for over 40 years. The UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme is one of the longest running insect monitoring schemes in the world. The scheme began in 1976 and now records data on over 2000 sites per year across the UK. In Scotland, this data is used as part of the Scottish biodiversity index to look at trends since 1979.
The indicator describes trends for 20 of the 34 regularly occurring butterfly species in Scotland at 597 sample locations. Nine species have increased significantly, nine species appear stable and two species have significantly declined. The most probable cause of the increase is range expansion due to climate change, while decreases appear to be caused by land management changes.
The National Moth Recording Scheme was launched in 2007, across the UK this has collated over 34 million current and historical records of moths in the UK, Channel Isles, and the Isle of Man. In Scotland, there is data showing that there are 1,300 species of moth occurring (the total for the British Isles is in the region of 2,600 species).
Moth abundance in Scotland has almost halved (46% decline) over the last 25 years, with more ‘significantly decreasing’ than ‘significantly increasing’ species (58 versus 5). It seems likely that summer warming is an important factor driving northward range expansions and corresponding increases in occupancy, whilst this is being countered for some species by negative impacts from land management practices and habitat changes, together with warmer and wetter winters, leading to population declines.
How do you turn data into targets? With a lot of spreadsheets! But once you have the data and can see the trends then you can look at what could be achieved. For Butterfly Conservation we have developed three goals for our own strategy:
• Halve the number of the UK’s threatened species of butterflies and moths
• Improve the condition of 100 of the most important landscapes for butterflies and moths
• Transform 100,00 wild spaces in the UK for people, butterflies, and moths
From that, we have produced a Scottish conservation strategy with data on the butterflies and moths that are most at risk and the highest priority landscapes for conservation action.
Collecting data, using existing data, looking at trends, and then setting targets for Scotland’s wildlife would turn the proposed Scottish Biodiversity Strategy into an effective framework that would enable us all to work towards nature’s recovery
Take action
Nature is in trouble, but we have a chance to turn things around. It’s time to have your say on Scotland’s next Biodiversity Strategy. Show the Scottish Government the action they need to take by sharing your views here: https://e-activist.com/page/108944/action/1?ea.tracking.id=part_butterflyscot.