Butterflies at risk

England's butterflies are increasingly at risk, with the number of farmland butterflies declining by 30 per cent during the last ten years, according to a study released by Biodiversity Minister Jim Knight today.

Mr Knight said that the study, carried out for Defra by Butterfly Conservation, highlighted the acute problems faced by butterflies in the English landscape, but also demonstrated the potential for Environmental Stewardship to help find solutions.

"Butterflies are an iconic species in their own right, and they can be good indicators of the health of the entire ecosystem, so this decline is worrying," he said.

"The implications for other insects, birds and mammals are concerning. The fact that this overall decline has taken place across the board means that we need to look very carefully at how we can help butterflies throughout the countryside, and particularly on SSSIs. We also need to monitor how well Environmental Stewardship supports butterfly populations - particularly those most at risk."

The study calculated trends for 40 butterfly species across 820 sites, of which 371 were in agri-environment schemes. Since the monitoring was carried out, new more widespread agri-environment schemes, Environmental Stewardship, have been launched in England.

The study also identified that butterflies declined at specific sites for a variety of reasons, including a lack of understanding of habitat requirements by land managers, overgrazing by rabbits, inappropriate bracken or scrub cutting regimes, and over- and under-grazing.

Mr Knight said that there were some encouraging signs that agri-environment schemes were starting to have an effect on butterfly population decline.

"On sites covered by agri-environment schemes, we are seeing improved trends for six of the eight species listed as priorities under the Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) when compared to non-scheme sites. There were significant improvements for the Adonis Blue, High Brown Fritillary, Heath Fritillary and Silver-studded Blue, which thrive in short and medium turf conditions."

"However, species like the Small Blue and the Duke of Burgundy, which are associated with variable turf and scrub edge, aren't faring so well."

"These highly targeted agri-environment schemes may have been playing a positive role to significantly slow and even reverse the declines of these very threatened species, but there is still much work to be done to extend this trend to other butterfly species. We hope this can be advanced as more and more land comes under the new Environmental Stewardship scheme, which contains management options that should help butterflies.

"Environmental Stewardship, especially the Higher Level Scheme, has the potential to address many of the concerns highlighted in this report, and could make a big difference to butterflies and to all the other insects, mammals and birds that rely on them."

Dr Tom Brereton, who spearheaded the research for Butterfly Conservation, said: "The results of the survey are worrying but we are optimistic about the new scheme. Real progress has been made in understanding butterfly declines and what to do about them."

The research was possible thanks to the recording efforts of more than a 1,000 volunteers.

Mr Knight said: "We are enormously grateful to many volunteer butterfly recorders across England for their fantastic efforts in supplying this high quality data. Their continued efforts are invaluable in helping the government to assess the impacts of its land use policies on biodiversity."