Butterfly Conservation is charity which aims to take practical action to conserve threatened butterflies and moths in the UK and elsewhere. Founded in 1968, it has 68 employees, 15,000 volunteers and 28,000 members. Butterfly Conservation operates throughout the UK and is headquartered in Dorset.

Butterfly Conservation was formed by a small group of naturalists alarmed by the decline of many types of butterfly. Three quarters of native butterfly species are now in decline and over 60 moth species became extinct in the last century. The charity aims to halt and reverse these falls. It has grown to become the world’s largest research institute for butterflies and moths and one of its largest insect conservation organisations.

The charity operates 35 nature reserves and leads, or is involved in, 79 landscape-scale projects aimed at conserving habitats. It has also persuaded the UK government to accept butterflies and moths as official biodiversity indicators and general indicators of the state of the environment and climate change.

Butterfly Conservation has 28,000 members and 32 volunteer branches located throughout the British Isles. Its chief executive, Dr Martin Warren, has been ranked by BBC Wildlife magazine as one of the UK’s top ten conservationists. Butterfly Conservation’s President, in post since 1998, is David Attenborough. Butterfly Conservation’s staff list includes many highly qualified scientists.

The charity’s head office is in England but it is a UK-wide organisation. It also has four staff members in Wales, two offices in Scotland and a project officer in Northern Ireland. It was pivotal in the establishment, in 2004, of Butterfly Conservation Europe, a pan-European body, based in the Netherlands, which aims to ensure conservation on continent-wide basis.

One of Butterfly Conservation’s most important activities is the ongoing recording of butterfly and moth populations. This involves around 40,000 volunteer recorders and over 94,000 people have taken part in the charity’s annual Big Butterfly Count over the last four years. The data gathered is used by government at national, UK and European levels to gauge the health of the environment and helps the charity direct its conservation efforts to where they are most needed.

The charity’s network of 35 nature reserves, covering over 785 hectares, are havens for butterflies, moths and other wildlife. Branch volunteers manage most of the charity’s reserves and the majority are open to visitors at all times. The charity also runs more than 2,000 events every year at its key sites.

Conservation projects take place throughout the UK, run in close collaboration with local landowners, conservation partners and branches. In one project, launched in 2012 in partnership with Natural England, Butterfly Conservation aims to ensure farming practices are tailored to the needs of butterfly species.