David Attenborough launches £25m scheme to protect butterfies in huge dome

It will be a paradise for butterflies and nature lovers alike.

Plans for a vast glass dome housing more than 10,000 butterflies were unveiled yesterday in the biggest conservation project of its kind seen in Britain.

When it opens in three years, the £25million Butterfly World will be the world's biggest "walk-through butterfly experience".

As well as colourful tropical species, equal importance will be placed on their threatened British counterparts at the dome just off the M25 in St Albans, Hertfordshire.

More than 100 yards across and 50ft high, the butterfly dome will be larger than the giant greenhouses which have bewitched visitors at the Eden Project in Cornwall.

The centrepiece of the 26-acre site, the dome will be home to a mini-tropical rain-forest and a series of underground caverns.

Inside, in addition to the butterflies, visitors will see hundreds of humming birds and collections of spiders and scorpions.

Land around the dome will be planted with meadows and gardens to encourage native butterflies and moths.

At the launch of the project, Sir David Attenborough said it would reverse the "silent natural disaster" threatening the creatures around the world.

The initiative follows shocking new figures which show that more than three-quarters of British butterfly species have declined in the last 20 years because of habitat loss and changes in farming.

"That is worrying, not least because these declines indicate an underlying deterioration of the environment as a whole," said Sir David.

"For the sake of future generations we must take action now.

"Butterfly World is doing just that. It is putting the issues on the agenda and is seeking to help reverse this environmental catastrophe."

Work will start within the next few weeks and organisers believe it will attract one million visitors every year.

Butterfly World is being backed by the conservationist David Bellamy, along with other famous names such as actress Emilia Fox, and leading lawyer Baroness Helena Kennedy.

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