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10 Dec 2010: European Butterfly Populations
Plummet As Meadows and Grasslands Decline

Grassland butterfly populations across Europe have fallen by 70 percent in the past two decades, according to new report from Butterfly Conservation Europe. Relying on data from 3,000 sites in 15 countries, the study said the main cause of the decline was the switch from sustainable, small-scale agriculture to more intensive, industrial-scale farming, which tends to wipe out the flower-filled meadows and grasslands where butterflies thrive. Europe’s grasslands have been formed, in part, by livestock grazing and hay production since the last Ice Age, and the abandonment of these traditional practices, as well as overgrazing, also is playing a role in the drop in butterfly populations, the study said. The report said that the decline of small-scale agriculture was particularly acute in Eastern Europe and in mountainous regions, such as the Pyrenees. The decline of bumblebees, spiders, birds, and several types of plants and flowers is also believed to be linked to the loss of European grasslands.

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