The European Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (eBMS) provides data that enables the production of the Grassland Butterfly Index (GBI), which is one of the key measures for assessing the status and trends of biodiversity in the European Union. It is now vital to maintain the momentum to sustain the eBMS network and continue to support BMS coordinators and volunteers in monitoring butterflies and streamlining the ongoing and regular updating of the GBI. This will enable all EU schemes to contribute to the centralized eBMS database and produce an annual update for the GBI. This is essential to build a sustainable basis for continuing to provide the EU with high-quality data to populate the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 Dashboard; to contribute to the EU Sustainable Development Reports (Guillaume Lafortune, et al. 2024), and to inform policy and implementation of pollinator recovery (European Commission: DG-Env 2020 EU Pollinators Initiative).
EMBRACE is a new project funded by the EU Directorate General for the Environment in 2025-26 to expand butterfly monitoring across Europe, building capacity, strengthening the monitoring network and updating butterfly indicators with recent data. This project will continue the work done during previous projects, SPRING and ABLE, based on improving the eBMS network and reinforcing the butterfly monitoring database. Based on the knowledge and recommendations from those previous projects, EMBRACE will secure a further step on consolidating eBMS.
The overall objectives are to:
EMBRACE is led by the De Vlinderstichting (Dutch Butterfly Conservation) and involves several partners: UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH), Butterfly Conservation Europe (BCE) and Butterfly Conservation UK (BC-UK) The project is funded by a service contract from the European Union DG Environment (EC-ENV/2024/NP/0040: GRASSLAND BUTTERFLY INDICATOR AND EUROPEAN BUTTERFLY MONITORING SCHEME UPDATE (2021-2026)).
Further information and links to recent presentations can be found here.