New report reveals joining up habitats could prevent threatened butterflies and moths from extinction

For the first time, the report by Dorset-based Butterfly Conservation says it has concrete evidence that projects aimed at conserving butterflies and moths at a landscape-scale have enabled threatened species to flourish after decades of decline.

A landscape-scale approach works by improving and connecting land for wildlife by the coordinated conservation management of numerous sites for a range of species across a large natural area.

The report, Landscape-scale conservation for butterflies and moths: lessons from the UK, also shows that measures to conserve rare butterflies and moths have helped other threatened species as well as the habitats in which they live.

Butterflies are the most threatened wildlife group; more than three-quarters of Britain’s 57 resident species are declining and more than 40 per cent are listed as Priorities for Conservation. More than 80 moth species are also at risk.

Most threatened species are now confined to small patches of habitat that have been left isolated within the modern intensively managed countryside.

For more than a decade, Butterfly Conservation has adopted a landscape-scale approach to conserving these areas in order to manage existing habitats more effectively and link them with newly restored habitats. This combination of targeted management and restoration has allowed many species to flourish in each of the 12 landscapes covered in the report.

Examples include the Marsh Fritillary, which in one Dartmoor valley have increased by more than 1,000 per cent in five years.

Across Dorset, the butterfly has increased by 278 per cent over the last decade thanks to a landscape-scale approach. The report lends weight to the recent Government paper by ecologist Professor Sir John Lawton Making Space for Nature which states we must make habitats far bigger, better managed and more connected if species are to survive in the future.

Sir John said: “The Butterfly Conservation report shows what can be achieved through a highly focused species-led approach. ”

Dr Sam Ellis, Butterfly Conservation Head of Regions, said: “Our report shows landscape-scale conservation works for our most threatened species. We now need to raise the funds to implement landscape projects across the UK to halt the dramatic decline of butterflies and moths.”

Butterfly Conservation is calling on the government to provide more funding for landscape-scale initiatives and targeted species conservation in order to reverse the decline in biodiversity and achieve the government’s 2020 targets on biodiversity.

Key Lessons To Reserve Decline

The report lists a series of important lessons that need to be learnt to allow this approach to be effective in reversing the decline of other wildlife groups.

• Careful targeting of management, both across the site network and within each site, is essential to maximise the chances of success.
• Extinction of species on small, isolated sites need not be inevitable if they are properly managed. Landscape-scale conservation can be applied across quite small areas.
• Skilled project officers are essential, providing the link between landowners and managers, partner organisations, funders and contractors.
• Landscape-scale projects must be underpinned by sound ecological research and high quality monitoring to assess their effectiveness.
• Projects focused on a single butterfly or moth can and do benefit a suite of other species which have broadly similar habitat requirements.
• Short-term funding (e.g. Landfill Communities Fund) is invaluable for the restoration phase of landscape-scale projects, but well designed agri-environment and woodland grant schemes are needed to sustain success.
• The maintenance of existing high quality habitat is more cost effective in the long run than restoration management of sites which have become badly degraded.
• Landscape-scale conservation always involves partnership working through a shared vision and action on the ground.