Government targets for protected area management: will threatened butter?ies bene?t?

Published source details Davies H., Brereton T.M., Roy D.B. & Fox R. (2007) Government targets for protected area management: will threatened butter?ies bene?t?. Biodiversity and Conservation, 16, 3719–3736.
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This study is summarised as evidence for the following.

	Action	Category
	Legally protect habitat Action Link

Legally protect habitat

A replicated, site comparison study in 1994–2003 on hundreds of grassland reserves across England, UK (Davies et al. 2007) found that half of threatened or declining grassland butterfly species had worse population trends in protected areas where the habitat condition was assessed as “Favourable” than in protected areas with habitat in unfavourable condition. In protected areas assessed as being in “Favourable” condition, four out of eight threatened or declining grassland butterfly species (dark-green fritillary Argynnis aglaja, Duke of Burgundy Hamearis lucina, silver-studded blue Plebeius argus, small blue Cupido minimus) had worse population trends than in protected areas assessed as ““Unfavourable No Change” or “Unfavourable Declining”. One species (Adonis blue Polyommatus bellargus) had better population trends in protected areas assessed as being in “Favourable” condition than in protected areas assessed as “Unfavourable No Change” or “Unfavourable Declining”. Three species had similar population trends in protected areas assessed as being in each condition. Data presented as model results. The habitat condition (“Favourable”, “Unfavourable Recovering”, “Unfavourable No Change” or “Unfavourable Declining”) of each protected area where a species occurred was assessed by English Nature from 1997–2005. Changes in the abundance of eight threatened or declining grassland butterfly species within protected areas between 1994–2003 were obtained from the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, which surveys >1,000 sites/year.

(Summarised by: Andrew Bladon)