For one week only, your donation has twice the impact to continue our project to save and secure the future of the threatened Wood White in Southeast England.

Wood White butterfly - Jim Asher
Click to save the Wood White

Funding is running out but with your help we can continue our project to create a sustainable future for the Wood White in the Southeast.

Big Give Christmas Challenge

From midday on 29th November to midday on 6th December, your donations could be matched pound for pound in the Big Give Christmas Challenge. Meaning your £10 donation could be worth £20 to our project to secure the future of the Wood White in Southeast England. Please consider a donation here.

Help us raise £20,000 in just in week to unlock another £20,000 of match funding. With your help we can continue to fight the decline of one the UK’s rarest butterflies, create new habitats and work with communities to give the Wood White genuine security in its future in Southeast England.

Please help us save the Wood White. Any money from our Champion funder we have not matched by December 6th at Midday will be lost. Please save the date and donate during this week.

Double your donation

Children looking at species

£5 doubled to £10

could pay for seeds of plants like Greater Bird’s Foot Trefoil that Wood White caterpillars feed on.

BC Volunteers

£10 doubled to £20

could help create identification guides to help people identify Wood Whites and other butterflies and moths and create spaces for them to thrive.

Mating Green-veined Whites at Snakeholme (Derek Fox) 200620

£25 doubled to £50

could help train volunteers on how to monitor Wood White as we track its expansion.

Wood White butterfly sitting on a white flower.
Yes, I'll help the Wood White

Funding is running out but the project must go on.

Help us secure the future of one the UK’s rarest butterflies in the Southeast of England.

Numbers of Wood White have dropped dramatically since the 1970s and this beautiful butterfly now faces a real threat of extinction.

We can’t let that happen. We urgently need your help to continue our project to save the Wood White in Southeast England.

Three years ago, Butterfly Conservation identified the last remaining stronghold of the Wood White in Southeast England, centred around the Chiddingfold Forest. We have worked tirelessly to rebuild the population from a decline but sadly funding for this vital project is ending. There is more to do.

By creating a three kilometre long strip of wildflowers like Greater Bird’s Foot Trefoil (the Wood White’s foodplant), and inspiring and issuing advice to landowners, we have connected isolated clusters to bolster a primary but delicate colony. Numbers of Wood White have doubled, but their future is uncertain if we cannot continue our work.

Without further work to maintain the young habitat and create more space, this colony, now 20% of the Wood White’s entire UK population, risks seeing its fortunes reverse. We urgently need your help to enter the next phase of our project and strengthen the health of the colony and ensure its survival.

You can play a vital part in the survival of the endangered Wood White.

What is the vital next phase of the project?

  • Share our expert advice to create new breeding sites, improve connectivity between patches and keep up with high demand for our knowledge
  • Recruit and train volunteers to increase our capacity to share advice
  • Create a Wood White Landscape Plan to map the current population, highlight long-term management objectives and identify areas where the Wood White can expand into
  • Create a new resource pack for land managers to provide guidance on creating and managing wildflower areas for Wood White’s across its UK range

Your donation could pay for:

Wood White butterfly on a flower

£50 doubled to £100

could create resource packs to provide guidance to land managers on how to create spaces suitable for the Wood White.

Wood White on bugle

£100 doubled to £200

could help create volunteer toolkits to empower volunteers to take actions as 'Wood White Champions'.

Big Give - Christmas 2022

£250 doubled to £500

could pay for a contractor to create a species-rich wildflower within the woodlands that support the Wood White.

Double the impact your donation has between 29th November and 6th December. Help us turn the Wood White’s decline around.

Please note: if we do not receive sufficient funding for this project to go ahead your donation will be allocated to education, engagement and community activity elsewhere in the UK.