This landscape-scale project will work collaboratively with land holders to encourage positive land management for Duke of Burgundy and other rare and threatened species. The project aims to:
• Survey and monitor the status of occupied (extant) Duke of Burgundy sites and identify management works that support these populations.
• Identify the potential of calcareous grassland and broadleaved woodland to support Duke of Burgundy colonies and identify management that would enhance the condition of these areas (including developing a donor seed site register for Cowslip/Primrose and collection of seed).
• Identify movement corridors to assist dispersal of Duke of Burgundy butterflies across the Dorset Downs landscape to re-establish a resilient meta-population.

Our first steps to implementing a landscape-scale project involves undertaking a ‘development’ stage (the focus of this FiPL bid), which will create a plan of action re-connecting Duke of Burgundy populations. The action plans, which will be specific to each holding, will then be set in motion through the implementation of a subsequent ‘Delivery Stage’, which will require the securing of further funding. This ‘development’ stage is essential to understand what actions are required and where throughout the landscape, and brings together the goals of the ‘Making Space for Nature’ strategy to create bigger, better and more joined up habitats to enable wildlife to flourish.