Duke of Burgundy (male/underwing) - Adam Gor

Butterflies and moths may be tiny but to save them you have to think big.

Colonies of butterflies surviving in small isolated pockets of land are vulnerable. Research has shown that they can be encouraged to spread their wings and expand but only if they don't have to fly too far.

In response to this new way of understanding butterfly populations and movement, our work to protect them and their habitat takes a landscape-scale approach.

Conservation on a landscape-scale means creating chains of butterfly habitat across large areas of countryside. Improving and connecting land for wildlife through the coordinated conservation management of numerous sites for a range of species across a large natural area. 

In the last decade, Butterfly Conservation and our partners have embarked on some of the biggest butterfly projects to date.

Butterfly Conservation projects focus on some of our most threatened butterflies and moths, they are often identified as priorities for conserving biodiversity by governments. 

The landscape-scale approach is used in many projects across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, further details on these projects can be found on the relevant countries pages.

 

Duke of Burgundy by Peter Eeles

England

Many of the projects work at a landscape-scale, where our projects co-ordinate the conservation and management of habitats for a range of species across a large natural area, often made up of a network of sites.

Marsh Fritillary - Iain Leach

Scotland

Scotland's rugged landscape presents a distinctive set of challenges to our team at Butterfly Conservation Scotland. Scotland's upland and northern species could be under threat from climate warming.

Grizzled Skipper - Iain H Leach

Wales

The core focus is on saving the most threatened species, discovering more about those we know least about and recording how species are faring as indicators of environmental health. 

Argent & Sable - Iain Leach

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland has only 6% of the land area of the UK but the relatively unspoilt coastline, mountains, lakes and rivers provide habitat for a wealth of butterflies and moths.