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About

Butterfly Conservation’s European Butterflies Group [previously known as European Interests Group (EIG)] promotes the enjoyment, conservation and study of butterflies, moths and their habitats in Europe. European Butterflies Group aims to build up contacts with partners in Europe and provide opportunities for self-funded volunteers to do useful survey work on butterflies in Europe.

European Butterflies Group organises occasional group trips to Europe for members to do surveys in an expedition organised by a leader. This is an opportunity for members to improve their butterfly ID skills. These European Butterflies Group Trips are subject to strict procedures in order not to fall foul of the “Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992” and to ensure best practice as regards health and safety and the field recording of butterflies.  Click here for full details of European Butterflies Group Trips.

European Butterflies Group currently has more than 400 members and organises the occasional meeting in the UK. An annual AGM and members day is often held jointly with other Butterfly Conservation Branches.
 
History

European Butterflies Group was established in 2006. Following the creation of Butterfly Conservation Europe, an interests group was set up to coordinate and promote relevant activities across Europe.  BC created an additional branch - the European Interests Group (EIG) to bring together those members of Butterfly Conservation interested in European butterflies. The Group name was changed to European Butterflies Group in 2017.

Mandate
  • Circulate information on European butterflies and moths to members and partners in Europe.
  • Encourage recording of butterflies and moths in Europe and facilitate contact with recording schemes and encourage the local atlases that are planned in several parts of Europe.
  • Publicise the plight of butterflies and moths in Europe where changes in agriculture, particularly land abandonment, are a huge threat.
  • Help set up projects with partners in Europe.
  • Provide a skilled volunteer resource for European nature conservation organisations such as national parks.
  • Assist the work of Butterfly Conservation Europe (BC Europe) and act as ambassadors for BC in Europe with partner organisations.
  • Work with partner organisations in lobbying in Europe.
Join

Membership of European Butterflies Group is only open to Members of Butterfly Conservation. European Butterflies Group is essentially a Branch of Butterfly Conservation and as such an additional subscription of £10 is payable at the time of a member's normal subscription renewal. Subscriptions, both existing Butterfly Conservation ones and European Butterflies Group, must be paid by Direct Debit - this is required in order to minimise the running costs of European Butterflies Group. To join, please download the application form and return by post to Butterfly Conservation.

For people who are resident in Europe and do not have a local BC Branch they can have European Butterflies Group as their local branch if they join Butterfly Conservation in which case they do not need to pay the additional £10. 

All European Butterflies Group correspondence is by email.

Newsletters

European Butterflies Group produces 2 newsletters a year which are emailed free of charge to members. Below are links to all the newsletters.

See here for an index of Newsletter contents.

See here for a list of Book Reviews & Extracts

European Butterflies Group Newsletters
BC Europe Newsletters
European Butterflies Group Annual Research Bursary

European Butterflies Group promotes the study of European butterflies by offering annual European Butterflies Group research bursaries (normally of €600) to assist with travel and other expenses. See here for more information.
The closing date for applications in 2025 is 19th April.

Three bursaries were awarded in 2022 to Emily Boig, to Guim Ursul Colomé, and to Claudia Pla-Narbona Leon.

See here for Emily's report: "Ideal habitat for the marsh fritillary Euphydryas aurinia (Rottemburg, 1775) in Sheskinmore Nature Reserve, County Donegal"

See here for for Guim's report:  "Butterflies of Gredos (Spain)"
(Gredos mountain range is located in Central Spain in Castilla y León)

See here for for Claudia's report: "Mapping the occurrence of the rare Twin-spot fritillary (Brenthis hecate) in North-East Spain"

EBG awarded a bursary to Juan Pablo Cancela, a student from Lisbon university who was conducting research into the butterflies of the Sistema Iberico in Spain. Juan Pablo’s research trips were interrupted by Covid in 2020 but he managed to complete the fieldwork in 2021.  See here for Juan Pablo's interesting report on his findings.

European Butterflies Group Surveys

Click here for a list of surveys undertaken by members of the European Butterflies Group from 2007-2024

EBG Threatened Species Surveys 2007 - 2024 Map :

Policies

European Butterflies Group Rules
European Butterflies Group A Code of Practice for Butterfly Recording and Photography in Europe
European Butterflies Group Trips – Best practice and legal requirements
European Butterflies Group Generic Risk Assessment for field work in Europe

Committee

European Butterflies Group Committee members
Mike Prentice Chair + BCE    
Simon Spencer Secretary
David Moore Treasurer 
Nigel Peace Newsletter Editor    
Martin Davies  Holidays + C. myrmidone
Dudley Cheesman
Mike Williams
Nick Greatorex-Davies 
Bernard Watts 
Roger Gibbons 
Marian Thomas 
Dave Plowman
Sam Ellis
Martin Partridge

Other European Butterflies Group Officers
Anne Spencer Membership + Sales
Jude Lock Links + Website content

Legal

European Butterflies Group is part of Butterfly Conservation and the information provided here applies to the use of the european-butterflies.org.uk web site.

The european-butterflies.org.uk website does not make use of cookies.

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