Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

E2: Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development

e-mail contact: ESTAT-SDG-MONITORING@ec.europa.eu

The indicator is part of the EU Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicator set. It is used to monitor progress towards SDG 15 on protecting, restoring and promoting sustainable use of land which is embedded in the European Commission’s Priorities under the European Green Deal.

SDG 15 seeks to protect, restore and promote the conservation and sustainable use of terrestrial, inland-water and mountain ecosystems. This includes efforts to sustainably manage forests and halt deforestation, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, halt biodiversity loss and protect threatened species.

The EU Biodiversity strategy for 2030 aims to restore degraded ecosystems and to halt and reverse the decline of pollinators. The Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive play a central role in achieveing these targets. In June 2018, the European Commission adopted the first-ever EU initiative on pollinators including butterflies. The initiative sets the framework for an integrated approach to address the problem of declining pollinators in the EU and for a more effective use of existing tools and policies.

The EU grassland butterfly index integrates the population trends of 15 butterfly species monitored across the EU and has been calculated from data from 18 EU Member States (Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden). The start year of national time series ranges from 1990 until 2016, therefore the index is currently presented as an EU aggregate only with smoothed values interpolating annual index values. 

i. Index 2000 = 100
ii. Index 1991 = 100

Calendar year.

Indicator from non-ESS source. For assessment of accuracy please refer to the original source (see link to external data source and metadata in “Annexes”).

EEA, BCE (BMS)

Data source: Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (BMS).

Data provider: European Environment Agency (EEA), the European Butterfly Monitoring Scheme partnership and the Assessing Butterflies in Europe (ABLE) project. The methodology and the data points have been published in the technical report:"Van Swaay, C.A.M., Dennis, E.B., Schmucki, R., Sevilleja, C.G., Aghababyan, K., Åström, S., Balalaikins, M., Bonelli, S., Botham, M., Bourn, N., Brereton, T., Cancela, J.P., Carlisle, B., Chambers, P., Collins, S., Dopagne, C., Dziekanska, I., Escobés, R., Faltynek Fric, Z., Feldmann, R., Fernández-García, J.M., Fontaine, B., Goloshchapova, S., Gracianteparaluceta, A., Harpke, A.,Harrower, C., Heliölä, J., Khanamirian, G., Kolev, Z., Komac, B., Krenn, H., Kühn, E., Lang, A., Leopold, P., Lysaght, L., Maes, D., McGowan,D., Mestdagh, X., Middlebrook, I., Monasterio, Y., Monteiro, E., Munguira, M.L., Musche, M., Õunap, E., Ozden, O., Paramo, F., Pavlíčko, A., Pettersson, L.B., Piqueray, J., Prokofev, I., Rákosy, L., Roth, T., Rüdisser, J., Šašić, M., Settele, J., Sielezniew, M., Stefanescu, C., Švitra, G., Szabadfalvi, A., Teixeira, S.M., Tiitsaar, A., Tzirkalli, E., Verovnik, R., Warren, M.S., Wynhoff, I. & Roy, D.B. (2020).  Assessing Butterflies in Europe - Butterfly Indicators 1990-2018 Technical report.  Butterfly Conservation Europe & ABLE/eBMS (www.butterfly-monitoring.net)"

Not Applicable

Update frequency unknown.

> T+2 years

New data points are disseminated within 3 years after the reference year.

Only EU aggregate

Only data for EU aggregates are presented. The EU aggregate is calcluated using data from 18 EU Member States (Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden).

Not Applicable

Only EU aggregate

> 10 years

Time series starts in 1991.

> 4 data points

Length of comparable time series without methodological break is longer than 4 data points.

Analysis of indicator is presented in Eurostat's annual monitoring report on Sustainable development in the EU (progress towards SDGs in the EU context).

See table  sdg_15_61

Eurostat dedicated section on SDGs: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/sdi/overview

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