Helping hands for butterflies

Planting seeds, counting butterflies…. These may seem small things, but when enough people do them it can make a huge difference for our wildlife.

Across the UK we are seeing worrying losses of our butterflies and moths, over two-thirds of species are in decline. In Scotland species like the Small Copper butterfly, once a common sight, are now declining rapidly, particularly in our towns and cities. This beautiful butterfly has declined by more than 50% over the last 10 years in Scotland and other once common species like the Small Tortoiseshell and Common Blue are experiencing equally concerning declines.

Please donate today to help reach and train new volunteers in Scotland.

We rely upon volunteers, the wonderful people who give up their time to protect butterflies, moths and our environment. Not only do they devote their time and effort, but their dedication helps plan into the future and ensure our projects are sustainable.

We urgently need to find more people who can help fight against the declines butterflies and moths are facing.

Our Helping Hands project in Scotland will work with volunteers to create and manage nine new meadows for butterflies and moths in Scotland’s towns and cities, as well as maintaining areas of habitat for rare butterfly species like the Grayling and Northern Brown Argus.

By training more volunteers we can reach more areas, help more species and ensure these precious places are nurtured for a long time to come.

Volunteering doesn’t just help wildlife; spending time outdoors helps improve our health and wellbeing.  It connects us more with nature, as well as demonstrating we can be part of something much bigger, helping to protect our environment.  It doesn’t matter if we can give 20 days a month, or just a few hours, every little bit helps. Our Helping Hands project will focus on reaching new audiences and more diverse groups of people, helping enable anyone to get involved in protecting wildlife.

The challenges facing the natural world can seem insurmountable at times, but we can all make a difference. Every positive action, no matter how small, creates a better future for wildlife and people.

This project has received generous support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Scottish Natural Heritage, but we need your help to raise the remaining funding. Through this project we will train more than 300 people over the next three years, so your donations really will create a safer future for butterflies and moths.

Please donate today to make a difference

£25 could buy enough native wildflower seeds to sow 10 square metres of new wildflower meadow

£200 could buy 10 new rakes for volunteers sowing wildflower seeds

£400 could run a training day for ten new volunteers to learn how to monitor butterfly populations so we can understand how they are responding to climate and environmental change

"The natural world is the greatest source of excitement. The greatest source of visual beauty. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living." Sir David Attenborough

 Photographs kindly supplied by Will Langdon, David Palmar, Jim Asher and Anthony McCluskey.

Butterfly Conservation is collecting donations through Crowdfunder to support this project.