ENGLAND’S BUTTERFLIES “INCREASINGLY AT RISK”

[Neil Jones]

Please note for people unfamiliar with UK geography this press release
issued by Defra ( Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
covers England only. The other constituent nations  of the UK ( Wales,
Scotland, and Northern Ireland) have their own National Government
structures which cover this kind of work.

Neil Jones
Neil at nwjones.demon.co.uk http://www.butterflyguy.com/



           ENGLAND’S BUTTERFLIES “INCREASINGLY 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.”



Notes to Editors
     1. Following an initial analysis of 1700 separate trends from 450
        sites, details of habitat management were obtained from over 100
        sites, to identify what management regimes had benefited 11 key
        species or habitat specialist assemblages. 
        
     2. Management success was to a large degree determined by
        outcome-focussed (adaptive, targeted, species-specific)
        judgements made by well informed and experienced land managers
        who (1) had a clear idea of the target habitat conditions they
        were seeking to maintain/restore; (2) carefully targeted
        management in time and space based on local knowledge; (3)
        modified (‘fine-tuned’) management as required when habitat
        conditions necessitated a change (e.g. to prevent over and
        undergrazing); (4) had sufficient control and resources to
        modify management.
        
     3. The report concluded that:
        
        
      * Because butterflies are widely accepted as good indicators of
        ecosystem health, the overall decline of butterflies (30% in 10
        years) is a worrying result with important implications for
        other insects and biodiversity.
        
      * Agri-environment schemes are playing a positive role in helping
        to significantly slow and in some cases reverse the declines of
        BAP Priority species, especially short/medium turf species. 
        
      * However, the positive effect of schemes was not evident for all
        species combined or all habitat specialists. This suggests that
        general conservation measures aimed at conserving birds (on
        ordinary farmland) and improving SSSIs and other semi-natural
        habitats have not been sufficient to halt butterfly declines.
        Moreover, for some species types they may have exacerbated
        declines, notably habitat mosaic species. This is of wider
        concern, as scrub and habitat mosaics are critically important
        for threatened insects (e.g. 352 Red Data Book / BAP species).
        
      * Examples of successful management were found for all species,
        proving it is technically possible to manage effectively for
        even the most threatened and specialised butterfly species.
        
      * The new agri-environment scheme in England, Environmental
        Stewardship (ES) has the potential to be a big step forward as
        it addresses many of the concerns highlighted in this research 
        
      * There is a pressing need for the great wealth of information
        generated on habitat management for specialist butterflies
        collected in the study to effectively reach the land managers
        and advisers.
        
        



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