All butterfly species have a population threshold. Once the population, and hence the gene pool, shrinks beyond a certain point, the species plunges into a nose-dive, heading towards certain extinction. This begins with a few local extinctions at marginal sites, but within a few years the range of the species contracts towards the areas where the climate is most favourable to it, and the area of suitable contiguous habitat is greatest.

By way of example, until the mid 1950's the High Brown Fritillary Argynnis adippe was regarded as a common and widespread butterfly, found in almost all of the larger woodlands of England and Wales. Rapid human expansion after the Second World War brought about the destruction of many of these woodlands, and a change in forestry practice in those that remained. The sunny coppiced woodlands quickly became replaced with cool, densely shaded conifer plantations.

By 1970 the High Brown Fritillary was a national rarity, found at only a handful of sites scattered across western England. Now, as we approach the end of the first decade of the 21st century it is on the verge of extinction in Britain, surviving only at a handful of small and isolated sites that are managed specifically for this species.

Although the High Brown Fritillary is one of the more extreme examples, it acts as an indicator of the type of causes which have resulted in virtually all European butterfly species declining dramatically.

The destruction of the rainforests

Elsewhere in the world the situation is just as bad, and in many places even worse.

The rainforests of West Africa, India and Madagascar have almost totally disappeared, replaced by agriculture and human habitation.

The rainforests and hill forests of West Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo, with the exception of a few small national parks, are predicted to disappear entirely within 20 years, replaced with vast plantations of oil palm, grown to meet the insatiable demands of the food, cosmetics and bio-fuel industries.

Papua New Guinea, home to exotic birds of paradise and incredible Ornithoptera birdwing butterflies is being rapidly deforested to make way for open-cast mining and yet more oil palm plantations.

Vast areas of the Amazon have already been burnt down to produce low quality cattle pastures which can only support livestock for about 10 years before desertification occurs.

What remains of the Amazon is now under severe threat of destruction from US-based companies which are burning down the forests and replacing them with vast soybean plantations, used to produce bio-fuel - the production and consumption of which releases up to 420 times more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than fossil fuels !

The Amazon rainforest, Brazil - catastrophic destruction as vast expanses of rainforest are deliberately burned down by United States companies eager to cash in on the demand for soybeans.

The Amazon, Brazil - a typical soybean plantation. The increased demand for soybeans comes primarily from producers of bio-fuels. Other major consumers of soybeans include vegetarians and the cosmetics industry.