Butterfly Conservation

The charity raising awareness of butterflies and moths and running field meetings in Kent.

Butterfly Conservation was founded in 1968. It is a registered charity and company limited by guarantee, whose mission is the conservation of butterflies, moths and their habitats. Butterfly Conservation is the largest insect conservation society in Europe.

 Britain has 55 resident butterfly species and there are half a dozen or more that visit us regularly from abroad and which breed here in warm weather.
 Five butterflies have become extinct in Britain in the last 150 years - the Large Copper, Mazarine Blue, Black-veined White, Large Blue and Large Tortoiseshell. The Chequered Skipper became extinct in England in 1976, but still survives in Scotland.

 The Large Blue has been successfully re-introduced, under a collaborative programme coordinated by Butterfly Conservation.

 Several more species may soon face extinction in this country unless urgent action is taken. Butterfly Conservation has an extensive conservation programme to save them.

 The Large Blue, Swallowtail, High Brown, Heath and Marsh Fritillaries are listed as fully protected species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) as amended. Others have some legal protection, but in practice this is largely ineffective.

 BC is working to strengthen the law and its application generally in respect of the protection of wild butterflies, moths and their habitats.