Q: Where do butterflies go when it all gets too much?

A: Butterfly Survival Zones.

Twenty of them have been designated across Britain in a bid to stop the country entering a ‘post-butterfly era’. Butterfly Conservation is in discussion with landowners about using government grants to restore habitats on farms and estates in these key areas.

Bees are being offered a safe haven too. The world’s first bumblebee sanctuary opened this summer in a nature reserve in Scotland. The flowery meadow is attracting hundreds of insects – so skylarks and swallows love it too. Bees are a ‘keystone species’, because their demise could have a huge impact on the ecosystem, not to mention the economy; pollination, largely by honeybees, contributes services worth £165 million a year to the agricultural economy.

14 October 2008

Hannah Bullock