16 March 2010, Gland (Switzerland). Habitat loss is having a serious impact on Europe’s butterflies, beetles and dragonflies. The release of the European Red List, commissioned by the European Commission, shows that nine percent of butterflies, 11 percent of saproxylic beetles (beetles that depend on decaying wood) and 14 percent of dragonflies are threatened with extinction within Europe. Some species are so threatened that they are at risk of global extinction and are now included in the latest update of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™.
“When talking about threatened species, people tend to think of larger, more charismatic creatures such as pandas or tigers, but we mustn’t forget that the small species on our planet are just as important, and are also in need of conservation action,” says Jane Smart, Director, IUCN Biodiversity Conservation Group. “Butterflies, for instance, play a hugely pivotal role as pollinators in the ecosystems in which they live.”
According to new studies commissioned by the European Commission and carried out by IUCN, Butterfly Conservation Europe and the European Invertebrates Survey, nearly a third (31 percent) of Europe’s 435 butterfly species have declining populations and nine percent are already threatened with extinction. For example, the Madeiran Large White Butterfly (Pieris wollastoni) is Critically Endangered (possibly extinct), having not been seen on Madeira for at least 20 years, and the Macedonian Grayling Butterfly (Pseudochazara cingovskii) in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is also Critically Endangered because quarrying activities are reducing its habitat. A third of Europe’s butterflies (142 species) are found nowhere else in the world, and 22 of these endemic species (15 percent) are globally threatened.
“Most butterflies at risk are confined to southern Europe; their main threat is habitat loss, most often caused by changes in agricultural practices, either through intensification or abandonment, or to climate change, forest fires and the expansion of tourism,” says Annabelle Cuttelod, IUCN Coordinator of the European Red List.
Read the full article on IUCN website.