European Butterfly Monitoring Scheme
The European Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (eBMS) is a collation of national Butterfly Monitoring Schemes datasets on behalf of Butterfly Conservation Europe.
eBMS is managed by the Natural Environment Research Council (acting through the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, UKCEH) in order to facilitate research using the dataset and to promote the conservation of butterflies.
Partners
The eBMS includes several partners that provide their data every year from the different National Butterfly Monitoring Schemes throughout Europe. Currently, there are 21 formal partners in 19 different countries with their respective BMS. Click on the countries to see their National BMS websites and discover more about their butterfly monitoring, how to join and contact them.
Current partners (in addition to BCE and UKCEH) in the eBMS are:
2. Belgium (Flanders)
3. Croatia
5. Finland
6. France
7. Germany
8. Hungary
9. Ireland
10. Italy
11. Luxembourg
12. Norway
13. Portugal
14. Slovenia
15. Spain (Catalonia, Balears) & Andorra
17. Spain (excl. Catalonia, Zerynthia)
18. Sweden
19. Switzerland
20. The Netherlands
21. UK
If you want to set up a new transect in one of these countries, please follow the links in each country and try to contact the main coordinator. Some countries have their own online system to manage national Butterfly Monitoring Schemes.
Partner meetings
eBMS and Butterfly Conservation Europe try to arrange an annual meeting with partners, experts, coordinators and people working and interested in butterfly monitoring. Physical meetings are arranged in Laufen every two years and you can check more information at the BCE website. You can find information below on the other meetings held online:
eBMS coordinator meeting - April 2025
This time it was a face-to-face meeting in Wageningen (The Netherlands) on 2nd April in the framework of the EMBRACE project. It was a great opportunity to meet the eBMS network in an intense and great session during the whole day to update on the eBMS network, recent news (NRR, app updates) and to talk a lot about the GBI calculations. You can download the pdfs of the presentations:
- Introduction by Chris van Swaay
- The Nature Restoration Regulation by Aidan Whitfield
- Grassland Butterfly Index: general introduction by Chris van Swaay
- Butterfly Count app: updates and tips by Cristina Sevilleja
- Validation on eBMS by David Roy
- Workshop: calculating BMS trends and indices by Reto Schmucki
- Dutch Moth Monitoring Scheme by Jurriën van Deijk
- Discussion: flexcounts, including 15min counts and Big Butterfly Counts by David Roy
- Discussion: BMS- how to keep recorders involved? by David Roy
- Ask for help in collecting nettle-samples by Berber Meulepas
- Discussion: eBMS data policy by David Roy
- Grassland Butterfly Index: lessons by Chris van Swaay
Thank you to Vlinderstichting for the organisation and host of the meeting, DG-Environment for the funding of the EMBRACE project and to all the participants, coordinators and eBMS team for this great meeting.
eBMS coordinator meeting - February 2024
This time we have arranged three short sessions to provide different times and dates to allow more people to participate. This way we can be more flexible. You can see the links to the recordings and the pdfs of the different presentations below:
Session 1 - Feedback from eBMS: Monday 12th Feb.
- Video, pdf: Feedback on SPRING results – David Roy
- Video, pdf: Feedback on eBMS network (achievements and current situation) – Cristina Sevilleja
- Video, pdf: Indicators of eBMS – David Roy
Session 2 - Data results: Wednesday 14th Feb.
- Video, pdf: Power Analysis moth monitoring (spread into a European network) – Chris van Swaay
- Video, pdf: Use of Shiny eBMS (formatting data for eBMS and summary statistics - interactive) – Reto Schmucki
Session 3 - EU Policy and Schemes: Thursday 15th Feb.
- Video, pdf: Update EU Policy regarding butterflies/pollinators – Aidan Whitfield
- Implementation of EU Pollinator Initiative and Nature Restoration Law on Member States – experiences and discussion by Simona Bonelli, Video and Eva Monteiro, Video
BMS coordinator meeting - October 2021
On the 21st of October 2021, the third meeting of the eBMS partners was held online: 60 delegates from 28 countries participated in a successful meeting with interesting discussions about butterfly monitoring, issues to solve in eBMS and updates on the future plans.
You can find the three different presentations of the session: David Roy with a review of the SPRING project and eBMS improvements planned; Cristina Sevilleja summarised updates of eBMS tools and Sue Collins a presentation about the future plans.
Become a new partner:
We will be delighted for more new partners in areas where is lack a Butterfly Monitoring Scheme. If you would like to become a new partner of eBMS and you are willing to collaborate and join eBMS, please contact ebms@ceh.ac.uk.
Collaborators
Apart from the eBMS partners, there are more countries and regions monitoring butterflies in Europe. Countries that are not partners of eBMS, without scheme or just outside of the European Union with different monitoring programs. These collaborators provide data to eBMS in order to contribute to the Butterfly Indicators or other types of results.
Armenia
Austria
Belgium (Wallonie)
Cyprus
Estonia
Jersey
Latvia
Romania
Ukraine
Russia
Turkey