Every summer, tens of thousands of volunteers across the UK take part in the ‘Big Butterfly Count’, counting these insects on their walks. The initiative allows scientists to assess the health of the butterfly population.
This year, the results are “disastrous”, with the lowest number of butterflies recorded in the last 14 years, Dr. Dan Hoare, responsible for the Butterfly Conservation association, explained to AFP.
According to experts, the causes of this decline are multiple – a particularly rainy summer, but also the artificialization of land, agricultural practices, especially the use of pesticides, and global warming.
A third of butterfly species have reached their lowest level ever recorded, and numbers are down for 81% of species counted compared to the summer 2023 census. This is an “extremely worrying” situation, the association said. .
“We went from a situation where seeing a butterfly on a sunny day was a normal event to one where it became a rare event,” said Dan Hoare with regret.
The association believes that it is time to declare a state of “emergency” for butterflies, insects that are increasingly threatened but essential for maintaining biodiversity. “They play a very important role in the food chain. Their caterpillars are a source of food for many species (…) and they are important pollinators,” explained Hoare.
Between 1976 and 2019, butterflies lost 42% of their range in the UK, according to a report by Butterfly Conservation published last year, while an official report concluded that in recent decades the UK has lost almost half of biodiversity.
Faced with this situation, Butterfly Conservation launched a call to the new Labor government to take measures to protect biodiversity. The association requested in particular the prohibition of neonicotinoid insecticides.
AGERPRES
Source: jurnalul.ro
