Butterflies on the Brink

The project aims to halt the decline in threatened butterfly and moth populations in the Totternhoe area of the North Chilterns Chalk Living Landscape by restoring, enhancing and monitoring wildlife-rich chalk grassland habitat at two nature reserves and five neighbouring County Wildlife Sites. Four species found at the sites are listed in the UK BAP as having suffered substantial population loss over the last 25 years: the Duke of Burgundy butterfly (72%), the Small Blue butterfly (69%), the Dingy Skipper butterfly (42%) and the Chalk Carpet moth (34%). Habitat fragmentation is one of the major contributing factors to this loss of biodiversity: our aim is to join up nature reserves and the wider countryside, and take species-specific habitat action, to give these creatures a better chance of coping with the pressures of climate change.