The British Dragonfly Society (BDS) held their Scottish Conference online last weekend, with over seventy people in attendance. Evelyn Tweed MSP opened the talks, as the Nature Champion for the rare Azure Hawker dragonfly, highlighting the benefits that spending time amongst nature brings as well as the Scottish Governments’ biodiversity strategy. The strategy aims to regenerate habitats and reverse biodiversity loss, an important step for many threatened species of dragonfly. There was a wide variety of talks covering a range of topics from recent research into rare dragonfly habitat requirements, to conservation restoration work at Corrour Estate, to exciting dragonfly surveys in Scandinavia.
Speaking after the event, Evelyn Tweed MSP said:
‘I was delighted to be asked to speak at the conference and share some of the plans in the Scottish Government Biodiversity Strategy to protect the natural environment. It’s been great to follow the recent work by the BDS, improving the habitat for rare dragonflies like the Azure Hawker in Scotland, including many new or improved deep pools at Corrour. I look forward to visiting the site and seeing more dragonflies return to this habitat.
Scottish Conservation Officer for the BDS, Daniele Muir, added
‘It was a really interesting day with a variety of inspirational speakers from across the country. A key message that came across is how joint working is so important. This year we are planning to work with a number of landowners to improve the habitat for their rare bog pool dragonflies, whose habitats are increasingly at risk from climate change.
‘I would like to thank everyone who took part to make the day such a successful one and look forward to visiting Corrour Estate with Evelyn to show her how they are carrying out ground breaking work to conserve the rare Azure Hawker dragonfly.’
