Daily butterflies monitoring programme in the Basque Country — Euskadi Nature Information System

In 2008 the Department of Environment of the Basque Government financed the implementation of a pilot programme for the monitoring of day butterflies in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country. The project was born with the aim of generating, in the medium term, one or several explanatory indices on the evolution of biodiversity, knowing the year-on-year changes of butterfly populations over time. Using the information extracted from the pilot project, in 2009 the methodology was adjusted in terms of the design and periodicity of the itineraries and the program was finally launched, with the participation of volunteer observers and field personnel of the Provincial Councils. Since 2010, the program has received the technical assistance of experts from the Spanish Association for the Protection of Butterflies and its medium “Zerynthia”. HAZI Fundazioa has been the entity in charge of coordinating and supervising the development of the project from its inception to the present day.