Northern Ireland news

While this is an uncertain and anxious time for everyone, I want to update you on how the Coronavirus Covid-19 is likely to affect our work and assure you that we are adapting and rising to the challenge of continuing our fight for nature.

Butterfly Conservation and over 60 leading wildlife and conservation NGOs unite in support of speedier beaver restoration.

Please be aware that all our offices, including Manor Yard at Lulworth, are now closed due to government advice re Coronavirus Covid-19.

Butterfly Conservation urges the Prime Minister to seize this opportunity to restore nature and reverse the climate crisis.

Wildlife charity, Butterfly Conservation, launches plea to the public to help measure impacts of climate change while its scientists are in lockdown.

Updated guidance for butterfly and moth recorders relating to Coronavirus Covid-19 
 
15/04/2020 
 
The UK Government delivered a very strong and clear message on 23rd March 2020 with their updated guidance: 
 
• The single most important action we can all take, in fighting coronavirus, is to stay at home in order to protect the NHS and save lives. 
 
Bearing this in mind, Butterfly Conservation strongly advises that you must not leave home in order to record butterflies and moths. This is not a permitted reason to leave home and would be a breach of Government restrictions. Recording of butterflies and moths seen at home, or when leaving home for permitted purposes (in line with current Government information), can continue.  
 
We will monitor this situation closely and will produce revised guidance when the time is right. Please check for any updates at www.butterfly-conservation.org. 
 
We recommend that you continue to follow the UK Government’s response to the situation at https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus.  
 
If you have any doubts or queries regarding this advice, please feel free to contact the recording team at recording@butterfly-conservation.org  

As lockdown continues and we all abide by the Government’s advice to stay safe in our homes over the four-day Easter break, anyone with an outdoor space will be making the most of the sunny forecast this weekend.

The summer of 2019 boosted UK butterfly population to give them their best year since 1997 according to a study.

Dr Amir Khan, star of Channel 5’s ‘GPs Behind Closed Doors’ and keen conservationist has joined forces with two leading UK wildlife charities to urge people to become ‘Nature Doctors’ in their own gardens by planting for pollinators this year.

You can do things in the garden to help butterflies and bees almost all year round, but a crucial period is in early spring.

The wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation Scotland warmly welcomes the Scottish Government’s refusal of the application for a golf course on Coul Links, near Dornoch in East Sutherland.

Wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation celebrates six years of the incredibly successful ‘Bog Squad’ initiative this March.

Butterfly Conservation are shocked and deeply saddened at the recent murders of Mexican butterfly activists Homero Gómez González and Raúl Hernández Romero.

The long-awaited publication of a landmark Agriculture Bill in parliament is a crucial piece of legislation which will have profound implications for the butterflies, moths, wildlife and wider environment of England.

Our work seeks to help the development of new land management support schemes by combining the latest scientific evidence and Butterfly Conservation’s practical experience of working with farmers and land owners on the ground.

The campaign for the Westminster General Election is now well and truly in full swing! This time it feels different, and not just because of the intense debates around Brexit. After years of trying to secure political attention, the environment has finally burst through onto the political stage.

Scientists from Britain and Ireland who have been involved in compiling the newly published Atlas of Britain and Ireland’s Larger Moths have revealed that our moths are on the move.

As gardeners, we always tend to have one eye on the present, while looking forward to the future. It rarely stops, except in the depths of winter when everything that can be done, is done.

Scientists have discovered why climate change may be contributing to the decline of some British butterflies and moths, such as Silver-studded Blue and High Brown Fritillary butterflies.

No place like home: species are on the move, but many have nowhere to go.

The Butterfly Effect. In Gloucestershire, we've borrowed a term associated with Chaos Theory, a curious idea that postulates that a butterfly flapping its wings in one place could cause a massive storm elsewhere.

The UK’s wildlife continues to decline according to the State of Nature 2019 report. The latest findings show that since rigorous scientific monitoring began in the 1970s there has been a 13% decline in average abundance across wildlife studied and that the declines continue unabated.

Numerous recent sightings of a moth that became extinct in the UK in the 1960s, suggest that it has recolonised and is now breeding across southern Britain.

In just three weeks this summer, nearly half a million Painted Lady butterflies were counted as part of the 10th UK-wide Big Butterfly Count, run by Butterfly Conservation and sponsored by B&Q.

UK wildlife charities have teamed up with England’s government advisor on natural environment to persuade local councils and landowners to help save our pollinators.

Climate change is causing a striking butterfly from southern Europe to appear in record-breaking numbers across the south of England, wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation can reveal.

Winnie the Pooh is encouraging families to enjoy the great outdoors this summer by joining Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count.

A beautiful blue butterfly which has been struggling for the last 40 years could be making a comeback in Northern Ireland.

Chris Packham is urging wildlife lovers to take part in the world’s largest insect citizen science survey to help reveal if the UK is experiencing a once in a decade butterfly phenomenon.