Are habitat changes driving the decline of the High Brown Fritillary?

High Brown Fritillary ©Peter Hassett, Silverdale 19 July 2009

We describe how a landscape-scale approach has been adopted to conserve the UK’s most threatened butterfly Argynnis adippe. Only 37 populations now remain, with 38 extinctions occurring since 1994 (51% loss). The butterfly has disappeared from most of England and Wales and is now confined to just four landscapes. Since 2005 management in these landscapes has been targeted at improving habitat quality within and connectivity between both occupied and unoccupied sites in the same networks. Conservation advice has been provided on 80% of occupied/former sites and over 270ha management implemented across 53% of occupied/former sites…