Working for nature
Apithanny Bourne hopes to inspire others
Apithanny Bourne is on a mission, “I’ve made it my life’s work to share with people why insects are incredible, important and, unfortunately, in trouble.” As a keen lepidopterist, she started volunteering with Butterfly Conservation about seven years ago, shortly after graduating from university. “I quickly became a committee member of the East Scotland branch of the charity,” she says.
Initially her role focussed on outreach – delivering talks to schools and community groups about the importance of pollinators and how to garden for butterflies, and establishing links with local authorities to encourage them to adopt pollinator-friendly practices in local green spaces. “Over the years, my role has evolved and I now sit as chair of the East Scotland branch, and as a trustee of the national charity,” she explains. “As a young woman, I feel proud to hold these positions and hope to inspire more women to consider themselves for charity board positions.”
In both her chair and trustee roles, she works as part of a committee to ensure the smooth running of the organisation, and to support its volunteers and members. “As chair, I sadly don’t get to spend as much time out in the field as I used to,” she laments.
“But I do get to support an incredible team of volunteers, which is very rewarding. They continually astonish me with their dedication and I’m very proud of all their achievements.”
The East Scotland branch covers a huge area – “the Scottish Borders and right the way up to Grampian in the North East – it’s a little bigger than the size of Wales!” Though the branch doesn’t own any nature reserves, it has a wide range of projects, including protecting grayling butterfly habitat from housing developments, creating new habitat for the dark bordered beauty moth, and a small blue butterfly community project.
“A recent favourite has been an endeavour to map the distribution of the northern brown argus butterfly, a priority species and a habitat specialist,” Apithanny explains.
Apithanny’s next focus will be on the younger generation. “Amongst the many thousands of young people who have taken to the streets in protest of climate change and biodiversity loss, are the future members, volunteers and staff of Butterfly Conservation. I feel really passionately that we must invest in the next generation of lepidopterists.”
FIND OUT MORE
Butterfly Conservation, East Scotland branch: eastscotland-butterflies.org.uk
All over the world, dedicated individuals are doing their bit by volunteering to get involved with wildlife. Megan Shersby meets a woman chairing a local group.
Our volunteers continually astonish me with their dedication.