Butterfly Monitoring Schemes
Butterflies are among the best-monitored insect groups thanks to long-term monitoring schemes that have run for decades in some countries. The first Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (BMS) began in the United Kingdom in 1976 (UKBMS), and since then, this methodology has been adopted in many other countries to monitor butterflies. All use the same standardised survey method, designed by Ernie Pollard, of the Monks Wood Experimental Station in the UK (Pollard and Yates, 1983). This vital information is gathered mainly by citizen scientists (volunteers) who have been trained (or are self-taught) to recognise and identify species and to follow monitoring protocols along butterfly transects.
The European Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, or eBMS, as its name indicates, was born as a network composed of national butterfly monitoring schemes from European countries. However, in recent years, eBMS has expanded to include BMSs worldwide, welcoming a total of 50 monitoring schemes distributed across 44 countries and territories in Europe, Asia, the Americas, Africa, and Oceania as of 2026.
In the list below, clicking on each country will redirect you to its dedicated information hub. There, you will find specific contact information, support materials such as local field guides, and more. Some BMSs have different data collection protocols and support materials for citizen scientists, so please check the information provided by your BMS before participating. To request data from the eBMS database, please go to the eBMS data access policy page to read how to do this.
Europe
- Albania
- Andorra: This BMS is coordinated under the Catalonia monitoring scheme, which is why this link redirects to the Spain BMS information hub.
- Armenia
- Austria: This country hosts two separate monitoring schemes: one is the citizen science-based BMS Austrian Butterfly Conservation (ABC), and the other is Viel-Falter, which is led by the University of Innsbruck.
- Belgium: The country has two separate monitoring schemes, one for the Flanders region and one for the Wallonie region.
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Ireland
- Italy
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain: This country hosts the most butterfly monitoring schemes, with four separate coordinated networks. These are Zerynthia Association, the BMS coordinated by the Society for the Conservation and Study of Butterflies in Spain (SOCEME), the Catalan Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (CBMS, which also coordinates monitoring for Andorra), and the Urban Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UBMS).
- Sweden
- Switzerland: This country hosts two monitoring schemes: one citizen science-based (CHBMS) and the other the Biodiversitätsmonitoring Schweiz (BDM).
- The Netherlands
- Turkey
- UK
Africa
America
- Ecuador
- French Caribbean
Asia
- Armenia
- Japan
Oceania
- Australia
- New Zealand
The map above shows the density of Butterfly Monitoring transects visited per 50km grid across all schemes that have contributed to the eBMS database (as of v5, data up to 2021). Densities are calculated from sites that have been visited at least once since 2000.