§ Norman BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the estimated population was of each species of butterfly in(a) 1991 and (b) 2001. [80873]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 20 November 2002]Information in the form requested is not currently available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. The United Kingdom Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, administered by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, provides data on changes in the abundance of butterflies at selected sites throughout the United Kingdom. Information on the Butterfly Monitoring Scheme can be found at http://bms.ceh.ac.uk/.
Data from the Butterfly Monitoring Scheme formed part of the basis for "The Millennium Atlas of Butterflies in Britain and Ireland" published in 2001 by the Oxford United Press. Produced by Butterfly Conservation, the national Biological Recording Centre and the Dublin 46W Naturalists' Field Club, the Atlas contains detailed accounts of the resident or regularly migrant butterfly species in Britain and Ireland, including information on their distribution and trends. A report "The State of Britain's Butterflies", which draws out the key results and conclusions from the Millennium Atlas is available on the Butterfly Conservation website http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/.