Buglife – The Invertebrate Conservation Trust (usually referred to simply as Buglife) is a UK-based

nature conservation Nature conservation is the ethic/moral philosophy and conservation movement focused on protecting species from extinction, maintaining and restoring habitats, enhancing ecosystem services, and protecting biological diversity. A range of values ...

charity Charity may refer to: Common meanings * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sha ...

Structure

Buglife's head office is in

Peterborough Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...

, England; with additional offices in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

and the South West of

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Buglife is the only organisation in Europe devoted to the conservation of all invertebrates. Actively working to save the UK's rarest little animals; everything from bees to beetles through to worms and woodlice. Buglife's aim is to prevent

invertebrate Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordata, chordate s ...

extinctions and to maintain sustainable populations of invertebrates in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and beyond.

Operation

Activities undertaken by Buglife fall into the following areas: * Undertaking and promoting study and research * Promoting habitat management aimed at maintaining and enhancing invertebrate

biodiversity Biodiversity is the variability of life, life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and Phylogenetics, phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distribut ...

* Publicising invertebrates

History

The Invertebrate Conservation Trust registered as a company in December 2000; becoming the first body to bring together and represent everything concerning invertebrates. In February 2002 the Invertebrate Conservation Trust employed its first staff member, Matt Shardlow. Two months later the Invertebrate Conservation Trust registered a name change becoming Buglife - The Invertebrate Conservation Trust; commonly known as just Buglife. During 2003 Buglife focussed on two key campaigns. The first was to champion the importance of Canvey Wick, a brownfield site under threat of development but of huge importance to invertebrates. Home to at least 1500 species of invertebrate, including at least 30 on the UK ‘red list’ of endangered species, after decades of proposed industrial development, Buglife and Canvey Island residents commenced a three year campaign to save the site from the latest business park development threat. The second campaign saw Buglife challenging the Ragwort Bill which aimed to eradicate the plant Ragwort (the exclusive home of 30 bug species); this challenge lead to Defra amending the draft Bill so that it no longer authorised the eradication of Ragwort. In 2004 Buglife celebrated its official public launch and continued to campaign to save sites of importance for invertebrates, launchin
Save Aucheninnes Moss
in Scotland; 31% of MSPs sign up to Buglife’s motion asking calling for it to be saved from destruction. Work also continued in relation to Ragwort with the Ragwort Code being produced and containing bug-friendly measures. In addition to this the Managing Priority Habitats for Invertebrates CD was released and highlighted in House of Commons by the environment minister as a best practice guide; it was used widely by land managers to improve the management of invertebrate habitats. 2005 saw Buglife welcoming the

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

(SSSI) designation o
Canvey Wick
by Natural England on 11 February 2005 – the first brownfield site to be protected specifically for its invertebrates. In addition to this the sale of

Cypermethrin Cypermethrin (CP) is a synthetic pyrethroid used as an insecticide in large-scale commercial agricultural applications as well as in consumer products for domestic purposes. It behaves as a fast-acting neurotoxin in insects. It is easily degrad ...

, for use as a sheep dip, was suspended following a long Buglife campaign and following pressure from Buglife wording was inserted in draf
Clean Neighbourhoods Act
to ensure that insects in the countryside were safe from being declared a public nuisance. In September 2011, Buglife contributed to

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

's ''Saving Species'' programme. In 2015, Buglife campaigned successfully to stop a building development which had threatened the

critically endangered An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of t ...

species '' Nothophantes horridus'' (also known as the Horrid ground-weaver).

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Buglife - The Invertebrate Conservation Trust 2002 establishments in the United Kingdom Charities based in England Conservation in the United Kingdom Entomological organizations Environmental organisations based in the United Kingdom Organisations based in Peterborough Organizations established in 2002