EU Policy on Butterflies and Moths
BCE aims to influence the development and implementation of EU legislation and policies that will support the conservation butterflies and moths.
We have regular contact with European Commission staff in the Directorate-General for Environment (DG-ENV), providing them with informal advice and formal responses to public consultations. This advocacy work has achieved significant success in recent years, including:
- In 2018-20, DG-ENV funded the ABLE project which enabled BCE to establish new Butterfly Monitoring Schemes in 10 EU Countries.
- In 2020, the EU adopted the Grassland Butterfly Index as the indicator for reversing the decline of pollinators in the Biodiversity Strategy Dashboard.
- In 2021-23. DG-ENV funded the SPRING project which enabled BCE to establish new Butterfly Monitoring Schemes in 6 EU Countries and piloted an EU Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (EUPoMS) for bees, hoverflies, butterflies and moths.
- In 2024, the EU Nature Restoration Law, included the Grassland Butterfly Index as one of the indicators for the restoration of agricultural ecosystems.
- In 2024, the EU awarded 3 contracts to consortia that included BCE: the EPIC project that will provide training for butterfly taxonomists; the PollHab project that will specify pollinator species, (bees, hoverflies, butterflies and moths) that are typical of habitats listed in the Habitats Directive; and the EMBRACE project that will update the European butterfly indicator and build capacity to support eBMS across Europe.
We have regular contacts with several members of the European Parliament who are interested in nature conservation, providing them with advice and briefings.
We are an active member of the European Habitats Forum (EHF) a group that represents the voice of the environmental civil society organisations and coordinates communication between them and the European Commission.
We also have contact with European Commission staff in the Directorate-General for Agriculture (DG-AGRI) at which we have promoted changes to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
