Volunteers are hugely important to Butterfly Conservation. Getting involved with surveying and monitoring butterfly and moth species in your garden or out in the wider landscape directly helps inform our work and projects.
However, this is not the only avenue open to you… there are other roles and tasks that are important such Branch Committee work, Outreach Education and Practical Conservation.
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Awareness Raising
Raising awareness of the importance of butterflies, moths and their environment is absolutely essential if we want to change hearts and minds about how we manage and protect our landscapes and the species that rely on them. Our Northern Ireland Branch Committee would love to hear from you if you would like to help.
Practical Conservation
Butterfly Conservation does not yet have its own Nature Reserve in Northern Ireland but we make up for this with lots of partnership work! In the winter and less-frequently in the summer, we undertake practical conservation work on partner sites to improve the fortunes of the butterflies and moths that utilise that particular site and/or landscape.
Butterfly Recording & Monitoring
Recording butterflies is the cornerstone to our work, allowing us to assess trends, identify priorities and measure the effectiveness of conservation action. It is what our work is based upon, through the efforts of a network of recorders, ecologists, researchers, academics and partner. Data collected allows us to promote the conservation of species and to lobby.
Moth Recording
Moths are a fascinating group of insects but compared to butterflies rather over-looked. Moths are just as colourful as butterflies and many of them are day-flying, in fact, there are many more day-flying moth species than there are butterflies!
Fortunately in recent years recording both macro and micro moths has really flourished, thanks to the tireless work of the recording community. It’s an exciting time to get involved in recording, particularly if you live in an under-recorded part of the country where there’s always the possibility of getting a county or country first.