About the project

Insect declines are being reported worldwide with strong evidence coming from butterflies. Climate change is considered a key threat to this group leading them to shift to higher altitudes where they could find temperatures within their fundamental niches, go extinct or change their geographical distribution.

Thus, there is an urgent need for monitoring butterflies as they can easily track temperature changes and are considered sensitive indicators of the state of the environment due to their relatively short life cycles and ecological requirements.

Butterflies have attained enormous popularity when it comes to monitoring, especially in Europe, where Butterfly Monitoring Schemes (BMS) have been implemented across many countries generating long time series data and enabling the calculation of butterfly abundance trends that can be used to detect environmental changes and also serve as an early warning system for broader biodiversity loss. Butterfly monitoring serves as a mechanism to bolster climate change resilience, utilizing data to enhance evidence-based policy development and implement conservation actions aimed at mitigating climate change impacts on biodiversity.

The Mediterranean Basin is expected to face marked increases in aridity, temperature, and frequency of extreme climate events therefore it is critical to close the knowledge-implementation gap of butterfly monitoring by empowering the skills most needed to successfully be part of BMS (e.g. European Butterfly Monitoring Scheme), while enabling citizens to get involved and contribute into safeguarding Europe’s biodiversity and help reverse the decline of pollinators (i.e. butterflies).

Especially in Eastern Mediterranean countries such as Cyprus and Greece where butterfly monitoring literacy and stakeholder involvement is insufficient.

The EMBRACE project aims to enhance butterfly monitoring, in line with major EU policies and initiatives, e.g., EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and EU Pollination Initiative, and contribute to their targets towards the protection of the environment and biodiversity, taking into account climate change. This project will engage key stakeholders and the farmer community to contribute to Butterfly Monitoring through adult education and VET, thus enabling climate change resilience.

To achieve this, the concrete objectives of the project are:

-Produce an e-learning course for Butterfly Monitoring - Activity 1

-Develop an interactive digital collection of butterflies, in the form of a 3D e-museum - Activity 2

-Produce a replicability e-package for education and training activities related to Butterfly Monitoring - Activity 3

-Interact with the target groups and increase output uptake by implementing 2 multiplier events, in Cyprus and Greece-

Activities 4, 5.

The project will allow VET and adult education providers to develop education and training activities focused on butterfly monitoring and contribute to climate change resilience.