Butterfly aims to significantly enhance society’s capacity to appraise, foresee, and respond to the threats posed by cascading impacts of pollinator decline.

Butterfly - what’s in a name?

The butterfly is a metaphorical pollinator. It is a delicate and vulnerable creature, and a universal symbol of beauty. It represents the vital role that pollinators play in making our landscapes more beautiful and liveable places. Benjamin Franklin's poetic early warning of the cascading effects by which entire Kingdoms depend on small things, is now known as the Butterfly Effect. The same is true of small restoration efforts: a single, well-chosen action can have a huge impact on pollinator populations. The metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly symbolises the project's transformative approach, which is essential to restoring biodiversity. This is the project's ability to change things for the better.

Our mission

Our goal is to make a real difference to the way our society operates. We want to stop and reverse the decline of pollinators. We want to see a major shift in our approach to nature, the way we farm, community practices, policies, economies, households and attitudes. Butterfly’s impact should be significant positive changes in biodiversity, pollinator-dependent farming practices and related businesses, community practices, policies, economy, private households and mindsets, across and beyond Europe. Four pathways will lead to this goal 1) Tools for actionable pollinator knowledge, engagement and decision support; 2) Living Labs as long-term test beds for evidence-based solutions and policy interventions; 3) Education of stakeholders at all levels; 4) Guidance and science-policy interaction for policy coordination, synchronisation and coherence.

Butterfly receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101181930. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the EU nor REA can be held responsible for them.