Fw: [UK-Leps] David Attenborough launches £25m scheme to protect butterfies in huge dome

[Neil Jones]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Neil Jones" <neil at nwjones.demon.co.uk>
To: <uk-leps at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 4:51 PM
Subject: [UK-Leps] David Attenborough launches £25m scheme to protect
butterfies in huge dome


David Attenborough launches £25m scheme to protect butterfies in huge dome
By DAVID DERBYSHIRE - More by this author » Last updated at 15:00pm on 12th
March 2008
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=532208&in_page_id=1770

Plans for a vast glass dome housing more than 10,000 colourful, tropical
butterflies were unveiled today in the biggest conservation project of its
kind seen in Britain.
When it opens in three years time, the £25 million Butterfly World will be
the world's biggest "walk through butterfly experience".

At the launch of the project, Sir David Attenborough said it would reverse
the "silent natural disaster" threatening the creatures around the world.

The initiative follows shocking new figures which show that more than
three-quarters of British butterfly species have declined in the last 20
years because of habitat loss and changes in farming.

"That is worrying, not least because these declines indicate an underlying
deterioration of the environment as a whole," said Sir David.

"For the sake of future generations we must take action now.

"Butterfly World is doing just that. It is putting the issues on the agenda
and is seeking to help reverse this environmental catastrophe."

Around 100 metres across and 17 metres high, the butterfly dome will be
larger than the giant greenhouses which have bewitched visitors to the Eden
Project in Cornwall.

The centrepiece of a 26-acre site, the dome will be home to a mini-tropical
rain-forest and a series of underground caverns.

Inside, visitors will see thousands of colourful tropical butterflies,
hundreds of humming birds and collections of spiders and scorpions.

Land around the dome will be planted with meadows and gardens to encourage
native butterflies and moths.

The site, off the M25 at St Albans in Hertfordshire, is expected to
attracted up to one million visitors each year.

Work will start within the next few weeks and organisers believe it will
attract one million visitors every year.

Butterfly World is being backed by the conservationist David Bellamy, along
with other famous names such as actress Emilia Fox, and leading lawyer
Baroness Helena Kennedy.

The scheme has been the vision of award-winning butterfly expert, Clive
Farrell.

"Butterflies are like the canaries in the coal mine," he said. "When their
environment is under stress, they are the first to suffer and disappear.

"During the 20th century, five of Britain's butterfly species and sixty moth
species became extinct. Drastic butterfly losses are continually being
reported as we destroy their natural habitats at a frightening pace.

"Butterfly World is designed to bring the public into direct contact with
some of the most fragile and beautiful wildlife in the world and send out a
clarion call on behalf of this endangered treasure."

Mr Farrell said the site - which will be landscaped in the shape of a
butterfly, with the dome as its eye - would give equal prominence to native
species.

Out of the 54 native resident butterfly species in the UK, seven out of 10
are in decline.

One of the most seriously threatened is the High Brown Fritillary. Numbers
have plummeted 79 per cent in the last 25 years. The Marsh Fritillary has
seen a 73 per cent decline over the same period, while there are 72 per cent
fewer Silver-studded blues than there were in the 1970s.

The East of England has seen some of the most dramatic falls in butterfly
numbers. because of loss of habitat.


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