Attenborough urges urgent help for butterflies

Much loved British TV icon, Sir David Attenborough, is amongst those warning that butterflies could become nothing more than a pleasant childhood memory if something is not done to help them live in harmony with the modern British countryside, and he has come up with a rescue plan aimed at boosting British butterfly populations.

In just the last twenty years, new, intensive farming methods; loss of habitat; and global warming have resulted in nearly three quarters of butterfly species suffering serious decline in numbers.

Conservationists, fronted by Sir David, are trying to alert people by organising a campaign aimed at stabilising numbers and more importantly stopping their total extinction in the British Isles.

Their initial strategy is to secure 20 areas in places across the nation where farmers, and other owners of large tracts of land, will be strongly encouraged to re-establish the type of habitat best suited to butterfly populations.

These areas of conservation will include Dartmoor, Salisbury Plain and the New Forest.

Sir David says that there is ample scientific and anecdotal evidence that there has been a huge decline in numbers; this is because so much of our natural countryside has given way to intensive farming, with huge fields ploughed up or growing crops totally unsuitable for butterfly colonies.

There is also the ever encroaching human infrastructure such as housing and roads.

Pesticides are killing of insects in huge numbers, and butterflies are well known to be particularly sensitive to even minor shifts in climate, and global warming is also diminishing their numbers.

Because they have been popular with collectors and scientists for centuries, there is a huge amount of information available for scientists to analyse and everything points to numbers spiraling downwards at an ever increasing rate.

Naturalists say that there are a handful of British species that are adapting well to climate change, but for most it is becoming a killer and an indicator that all is not well for British wildlife.