World Butterfly Day 2025

2025 03 14

World Butterfly Day, Inaction Plan and Our Role

Every year, March 14 is celebrated as World Butterfly Day. In some countries, it is also known as National Learn About Butterflies Day. This day is not celebrated at the state level in Sri Lanka, but it is another environmental day that is celebrated by butterfly enthusiasts in their own way. There are more than 20,000 species of butterflies worldwide and this day is used to increase interest in them, draw attention to their conservation and learn about butterflies.

The fact that all native butterflies found in Sri Lanka have been granted full protection under Section 31B of the Wildlife Protection Ordinance is a very valuable step taken to protect butterflies. However, the fact that the Butterfly Conservation Action Plan of Sri Lanka, published in 2014, proposes to change this situation and remove some butterflies from the special protection status (this is mentioned on page 36) is a mistake in granting this legal protection. Also, such proposals are highly inappropriate for conservation plans.

The Butterfly Conservation Action Plan of Sri Lanka has been in existence for eleven years. Although this 110-page plan was prepared since 2008, it was published in 2014.

This plan was initially prepared in 2008-2009, but was revised again in 2012-2013 after our participation was withdrawn. The action plan of this entire report is on pages 36-42. The various measures included in it include conservation of Sri Lankan butterflies both locally and externally, as well as conducting research and educating the public.

It is also surprising and extremely regrettable that this plan contains several measures that are contrary to and against conservation, as well as a statement that does not have any understanding of how the laws of the country are formulated. Considering these several issues that are inappropriate for a conservation action plan and are detrimental to its credibility, the implementation of the other measures included here is undoubtedly important for the conservation of butterflies in Sri Lanka.

However, no significant aspect of this plan appears to have been implemented in any significant way in the past decade. It also seems that the plan has been forgotten. Another regrettable fact related to this is that from 2020, the two institutions that should have the most powers and contributions to butterfly conservation, the Department of Wildlife Conservation and the Department of Forest Conservation, have been removed from the purview of the Ministry of Environment.

While all this is not happening, the degradation and destruction of Sri Lanka's butterflies and the ecosystems they live in continue unabated. It is clear from the decisions taken in the past that the provision of Sri Lanka's remaining forests and ecosystems for various purposes will continue.

In this context, World Butterfly Day is a series of activities that should shine in the future and that we can contribute to. The main ones are to immediately stop the destruction of habitats with butterfly and butterfly larval food plants, to cultivate and popularize butterfly larval and adult food plants, to take the lead in short and medium-term measures for butterfly conservation, and to create a greater understanding of butterflies and a group of public scientists dedicated to studying them.