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In a global context of biodiversity erosion, the decline in insect populations is well documented, with dramatic drops in numbers of up to 80%. Among them, butterflies are paying a heavy price in the face of man-made disturbances: degradation or loss of their habitats, pollution, insecticides, the effects of climate change, transport of invasive exotic species, etc. This crisis, however systemic, must not hold back more local action. Here are a few examples of how, on a daily basis, ecologists and entomologists try to understand, monitor and assess butterfly population dynamics, with a simple but complex objective: to maintain or restore natural habitats to enable their development and dispersal through favorable matrices. With the rise of participatory science, which enables any individual to actively contribute to butterfly knowledge or inventory programs, monitoring no longer only concerns today's rare and endangered species, but also the more widely distributed so-called common or ordinary species, which could become tomorrow's threatened species.

Intervenant

• David Demergès
  Conservatoire d’Espaces naturels de Lorraine / vice-president of the "oreina, les papillons de France" association.