NESTLE is planning to create a meadow in the grounds of its York factory to help halt the decline of the UK’s butterfly population.

Nearly 75 acres of butterfly meadows – the equivalent of almost 250 football pitches – will be created on the company’s sites and farmland across the UK in a new national programme.

A spokesman said the aim was to attract more than ten varieties of butterflies including the Large White, Red Admiral, Small Copper, Wall Brown and Meadow Brown.

He said that by 2015, all the company’s 15 UK sites would have a wildflower meadow within the grounds. The location of the York meadow had not yet been decided, but Nestlé had established a set of criteria around planning, maintaining and improving the meadows, including employee, community and external expert engagement.

He said another seven dairy farmers, who supplied 70 million litres of milk each year to be used in Nestlé’s milk chocolate, would also plant wildflower meadows on their land, and the company would look to further expand the programme across the entire supply chain.

Mike Dilger, vice-president of Butterfly Conservation, naturalist, TV presenter and broadcaster, welcomed the project as “very positive news”. He said: “I hope Nestlé’s commitment to wildflower meadows inspires other businesses, organisations and individuals to follow suit.”

The spokesman said employees and local communities would record new butterfly sightings with the help of a new mobile app to assist with efforts to monitor butterfly numbers across the UK.

Inder Poonaji, head of environmental sustainability at Nestlé UK, who developed the programme, said: “Without nature, we don’t exist. Nature provides pollinators such as butterflies, bees and birds and they are integral to the food we grow. Their habitats are at risk which is why we are announcing this programme, to encourage biodiversity across not only our sites but also land belonging to our First Milk farmers.

“Butterflies are vital for our ecosystem but they are facing particularly tough conditions. Their numbers indicate the environmental health of an area and by restoring natural habits we will see an increase in both fauna and flora thereby increasing the local biodiversity and helping local indigenous species.”