EU Grassland Butterfly Index 1991-2024 Technical report

Executive Summary Butterflies have been systematically monitored in Europe for several decades using standard protocols that are now adopted in over 30 countries. Butterflies are ideal biological indicators: they are well-documented, measurable, sensitive to environmental change, occur in a wide range of habitat types, represent many other insects, and are popular with the public because of their beauty. Records from over 16,150 standardized butterfly transects are gathered by National BMS and integrated into a central database as part of the European Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (eBMS) run by Butterfly Conservation Europe (BCE) and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH). The database provides trends on individual species, which can be combined to give trends for different habitats. In this report,…