Svetlana Goloshchapova
Other projects
The main aim of our project has been to develop a network of skilled volunteers and enthused local communities to become involved in both long-term recording butterflies and undertaking direct action aimed at conserving butterflies and their habitats.
We will launch a program of public engagement (training, publicity, public events) that will increase awareness of butterflies and conservation issues amongst local communities, and develop a cost effective and scientifically robust tool for future monitoring of their changing status in the region to inform future conservation efforts.
Papilio machaon.
This project will seek to develop a step change in interest in butterflies and biodiversity conservation amongst local people in the Bryansk Region of European Russia. Given that butterflies are amongst the most popular of wildlife groups, the data will provide a powerful too for measuring and communicating the impacts of environmental management and change to policy makers and the wider public.
Training workshops will help establish an expanded network of volunteer recorders equipped to undertake scientific survey and monitoring work supported by a co-ordinator. New survey work will be undertaken targeted at under-recorded habitats and species, especially Red Data Book species. Consequently, a new baseline of the status of butterflies in the Bryansk region will be established, which will be vital for conservation planning.
A network of butterfly transects in a representative range of habitats across the region will be established. This network will provide a low cost and sustainable tool to enable future monitoring of the changing status of butterflies in the Region.
Through public meetings, school visits, public events and the provision of educational materials, the local community will be made more aware about butterflies, and biodiversity conservation in the region. Communities will then be armed with knowledge and skills to contribute to future conservation efforts and the public perception of butterflies will be changed. Efforts will be made to engage with land owners and land managers, to encourage them to better incorporate the needs of butterflies into their management activities. The project will additionally result in recommendations for the future management of butterflies for local authorities and the development of conservation policy in regions and communities.
Initiating a campaign to increase public awareness about butterflies will give us the experience and the expertise to develop into a national organisation for butterfly conservation in Western Russia.