(Vlora) In Zvërnec, on a flowery hill overlooking the sea, the butterflies that once offered the curious the most astonishing colors of nature are becoming increasingly rare. Here as elsewhere in Albania, half of the butterflies are now in danger.
Of the 207 butterfly species recorded in the country, 91 are endangered, and 58 are particularly vulnerable, according to the criteria of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
“As a consequence of human activity on nature, but also of climate change, the pretty, extinct butterflies have taken with them a piece of my soul, a piece of my happiness,” regrets Fjona Skenderi, a natural sciences student in Tirana.
True sentinels of the state of nature, valuable indicators of the health of the planet, butterflies are not only pretty.
“Sensitive to changes, they are a true mirror of the conditions of the ecosystem in which they live,” says Professor Anila Paparisto, who with her students at the University of Tirana is taking care of identifying the butterflies that remain – and those already gone.
From year to year, we see a reduction not only in species, but also a considerable decline in the biomass of butterflies that inhabited this once very rich nature reserve, explains Ms. Paparisto.
So the professor, the Belgian specialist Sylvain Cuvelier, co-author of the Atlas of Butterflies in Albania; and Altin Hila, agronomist and collector, are sounding the alarm. The causes are multiple, they emphasize: uncontrolled urbanization, pesticides and climate change endanger the survival of butterflies.
In Zvërnec among the butterflies missing this year, it is the absence of the Alexanor, with yellow, black, red and blue wings, which is the most notable.
In its place, under the sun reflected by the sea, small butterflies with white and black wings, called half-mourning or common chessboard, drink nectar from rapeseed flowers.
In the Divjaka natural park, on the Albanian coast, Altin Hila notes the absence of Saturia pyri, the Greater Night Peacock, and of Danaus chrysippus, or Little Monarch, a migratory butterfly from Africa, remarkable for its orange-edged wings. black.
“It’s a catastrophic year marked by climate disruption, an early spring and excessively high temperatures in January and February,” explains Mr. Hila, who, driven by his passion for butterflies, opened a museum in Divjaka. “This favored the hatching of eggs and the growth of butterfly larvae, but in April the temperatures were too low” for them to survive.
“When there are fewer butterflies, you expect… a butterfly effect,” warns Ms. Paparisto. “Which will impact the entire food chain, biodiversity, which is also essential for humans.”
Deceptively beautiful, recognizable by its white wings bordered with brown, the moth, which arrived from China with the importation of ornamental plants, has already ravaged more than 80% of boxwood forests in Albania since 2019, according to estimates from experts.
At the edge of the road along Lake Ohrid, in Pogradec (north-west), the boxwoods which once offered long green rows are devoured by the moth caterpillar. Skeletonized and completely dried out… nothing remains of them.
It attacks boxwood when it is in the form of caterpillars: black and shiny head, light green body streaked with darker lines, it is easily spotted clinging to the leaves and stems of boxwood which it causes the death.
Favored by the mild temperatures, they came out this year around February.
For Professor Cuvelier: “It is urgent to join forces to find solutions. A deep rethink of our use of natural resources is the way forward for the protection and restoration of our environment, planet Earth.”
According to a study by dozens of researchers published in early June, global warming caused by human activities has reached an “unprecedented rate.”
