Britons encouraged to count butterfly for environment survey

British people have been encouraged to count the number of butterfly this summer across the country to help survey the environment.

Butterfly Conservation announced on Friday the new annual butterfly count will be launched between July 19 and August 10.

The world's largest butterfly survey, the Big Butterfly Count is expected to count one million butterflies this year for the first time since it was launched in 2010.

David Attenborough, president of Butterfly Conversation, will take part in the count and he has encouraged nature lovers in Britain to join the event and count different spices of butterflies, such as Marbled Whites, Small Coppers, Gatekeepers.

"The UK is a nation of amateur naturalists and we have a proud tradition of celebrating and studying our wildlife," said David.

"Butterflies fought back last year after a terrible 2012 but despite this, butterfly numbers were still below average. Three-quarters of the UK's butterflies are in decline and one-third are in danger of extinction," he said, adding this is bad for butterflies and the whole nature, as butterflies are a key indicator species of the environment.

The methods for citizens to count the butterflies are very easy, the organization said people only need to "find a sunny place and spend just 15 minutes counting every butterfly seen and then submit sightings online."

As one of the citizen science projects in Britain, the count event has been started since 2010. More than 46,000 people took part in the count last year counting more than 800,000 butterflies and day-flying moths in their gardens, parks and local countryside