Butterfly Highways

The aim of the Butterfly Highway is the restoration of the agricultural landscape in the foothills of the White Carpathian Mountains, which has been significantly damaged by the collectivisation of agriculture. The main objective is to connect the last remaining fragments of the extraordinarily rich native meadows, ensure year-round availability of pollen and nectar to pollinators and halt biodiversity loss.

This model combines agricultural production and nature conservation, making it an innovative and sustainable approach to landscape management.

The target species is turquoise blue (Polyommatus dorylas), critically endangered butterfly, which is surviving here on the last localities in Czechia. From the project also benefits other butterfly species, which feed on cultivated plants in the larval stage, pollinators, farmland birds and last but not least, it creates an attractive landscape for local people and tourists.

What Is the Project About

The foothills of the White Carpathians were once a varied landscape. The White Carpathian meadows, famous for their considerably high plant species richness, were common and widely spread in this area. Some of these extraordinarily rich native meadows around Blatnička village are old for over 8,100 years. Its history dates back to the last Ice Age, long before the arrival of the first farmers. Even though humans had settled there for several thousand years, these extraordinarily rich native meadows remained intact until the last century. Many insects, including pollinators, are attached to the local flowering plants. Unfortunately, in 1962, during the collectivisation of agriculture, most of the meadows were ploughed up. Only a few last meadow fragments have remained till today.

The above resulted in a uniform monocultural landscape due to the forced collectivisation of agriculture in the last century and a rapid decline in insects, including pollinators. Local beekeepers have had troubles with honey bees because, especially in late summer, there has been a lack of pollen and nectar resources for honey bees in the countryside allowing them successful overwintering. The local landscape has a high proportion of arable land ploughed up in the second half of the summer and left completely devoid of vegetation. Since 2023, the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) introduced subsidies for the cultivation of cover crops. Unfortunately, it did not help either, as these measure are optional for farmers, and the Czech CAP paying agency provides subsidies for cover crops only up to 10 % of the arable land. However, no farmers grow cover crops in the region surrounding Blatnička village that would provide a source of pollen and nectar after the main cash crops have been harvested.

The butterfly highways aim to:
1) connect the last remaining fragments of the extraordinarily rich native meadows and help pollinators recolonize the countryside and
2) ensure year-round availability of pollen and nectar to pollinators.

Butterfly highways are strips of arable land 6-30 meters wide that stretch across the landscape for several hundred meters. The longest strip is 1.1 kilometres long. The total length of butterfly highways is 3.6 kilometres. The following plants are cultivated there: sheep's fescue (Festuca ovina), common kidney vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria), common bird's-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), and white clover (Trifolium repens).

The plants grown on the butterfly highways are commercially used to produce fodder for livestock, yet it is possible to combine both commercial agricultural production and non-production (environmental) functions. The species used are designed to flower throughout the year and provide food for honey bees and wild pollinators (solitary bees, bumblebees, butterflies, hoverflies, etc.) from early spring (April) until late autumn (late November, with some flowering species even in December due to long-term climate warming). Many butterflies feed on cultivated plants in the larval stage; some are even critically endangered, like turquoise blue (Polyommatus dorylas). Plants flower very early after mowing, even in dry and hot summers. When comparing July-August 2024 vs 2023 year-on-year, four times less rain fell this year, and new temperature records were set. Still, the first plants emerged so quickly after harvesting that they had their first flowers in just three weeks.

The Czech Republic financially supports farmers in establishing "flower-rich fallows" and "bio strips" (both with flowering plants cultivated on arable land to provide food for pollinators). Unfortunately, farmers do not frequently use these measures due to incredibly complicated conditions. A significant disadvantage is that "flower-rich fallows" and "bio strips" must be ploughed and re-established every year, which is time-consuming and significantly increases farmers' costs, thus discouraging them. Furthermore, the CAP paying agency controls are extremely strict, so farmers are often penalised, and the subsidies for "flower-rich fallows" and "bio strips" are cut for absurd reasons. The annual nature of the crops does not allow the full use of the potential of such dedicated land. The ban on production in these areas, the mandatory mowing by 30th August, and many other completely meaningless requirements set by the CAP-paying agency comprise further limits to widespread the above features in the landscape. The role of farmers is the production of food or feed for livestock and pets. Obligation of large-scale mowing by 30th August is counter-productive because it completely removes the source of food for honey bees and wild pollinators at the most critical time (before winter). Perennial fallows (being in the same place for more years) allow the full potential of such dedicated areas to be exploited throughout the year (plants flower and provide a source of pollen and nectar both in early spring and late autumn).

Innovative Elements of the Project

The novel and innovative idea of this butterfly highway model is that it can fully exploit the potential of agricultural land for both intensive agricultural production and intensive support of pollinators in the countryside.

Butterfly highways also benefit other organisms, as many insects living there provide biological protection for crops cultivated in the surrounding fields (e.g., adult hoverflies feed on nectar, while their larvae are the most effective predators of aphids). Insects (grasshoppers, locusts) are a source of food for some birds of prey, which then actively participate in the eradication of voles when their populations surge (voles overpopulate every 3-4 years in Czechia and cause considerable economic damage to crops). The butterfly highways are important breeding places for ground-nesting farmland birds - e.g., grey partridge (Perdix perdix), Eurasian skylark (Alauda arvensis), corn bunting (Emberiza calandra), European stonechat (Saxicola rubicola), and tree pipit (Anthus trivialis). European hare (Lepus europaeus) and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) are born here.