[Your address]

[Date]

[MP’s name ]
House of Commons
Westminster
London W1AA


Dear [MP]

I am writing to you to ask for your support for an early day motion (EDM 8) ‘Butterflies’ proposed by Bob Russell.

You may know that DeFRA have commissioned a study of farmland butterflies to check the natural health of agricultural habitats. The initial results suggest that they are not very healthy, or at least that few butterflies survive there.

Other studies over a longer time span, for example those conducted by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, show an inexorable fall in the overall numbers of butterflies and also in the geographic range of most species. Currently butterfly populations are at the lowest levels ever known.

No one knows how global warming/climate change will impact upon this already poor situation, but so far no one has advanced any scenarios which envisage climate change assisting overall butterfly numbers.

This early day motion requests that more effort is put into saving our endangered butterfly species, which will in turn mean safeguarding their habitats. The motion asks that this be achieved by closer co-operation of Government departments. 

Within the organisation Butterfly Conservation, there is a view that once populations have contracted to a certain point it will be near impossible to reverse the losses. Once gone butterfly species (and their associated habitats) will, most likely, be entirely lost forever, though just possibly they could be brought back at very great expense.  The sensible and indeed ethical action is to act decisively now to improve the way that government assists in nature conservation in general and with this especially threatened and much appreciated group in particular.

Please let me know when you have signed the motion, or if you chose not to, why you don’t choose to do so.

Thank you for your time and your consideration of this pressing matter.