How nature photographers’ posts on social media are helping to protect biodiversity

Usually, social media is used for disconnecting from daily stress. We aim to keep in touch with family and friends, or just have a boost of oxytocin by watching cute animal photos or videos. But what if we told you that posting animals on social platforms has helped scientists perfect biodiversity mapping?

Researchers uncovered nearly 1,000 vulnerable species in Bangladesh.

An international group of scientists carefully examined photographs shared on Facebook within nature photography communities in Bangladesh. Their goal was to enrich the current database of species distribution in the country maintained by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

In their study, they combined the species distribution data obtained from these two sources to evaluate the representation of protected areas for Bangladeshi taxa and also to pinpoint the most crucial conservation zones. “We found 44,000 photos of almost 1,000 animal species, including many birds and insects, 288 of which are considered threatened in Bangladesh. This has vastly improved habitat mapping across the country, where only 4.6 per cent of land is designated as protected.”, expressed Dr. Chowdhury in the study. 

Thanks to this, the scientists note that out of the 1,097 species assessed, only five are adequately represented within Bangladesh’s existing protected-area system.  “The priority areas, spanning 39% of Bangladesh, are distributed mostly in the northeast and southeast regions.” they continued. 

Shawan Chowdhury, the scientist who led the investigation at the University of Queensland’s School of the Environment emphasised that the findings were notably encouraging.  “We’d been missing out on the distribution data of hundreds of endangered species in Bangladesh so this is a big result,” Chowdhury explains. “This could change the way scientists gather biodiversity information in the future, especially in regions where there is a lack of reliable and up-to-date structured monitoring to inform conservation efforts.”

In Australia, social media posts are used as a tool to monitor pest species.

Chowdhury explained that in 2012, a South Asian butterfly known as the tawny coster made its way into Australia. “We’ve searched for additional locality records from Facebook to analyse the movement, ecology and colonisation status of this species and shown that it expanded at about 135 kilometres per year in Australia between 2012 and 2020.” he added. 

While Facebook has been helpful in these investigations, Richard Fuller, a professor specialising in conservation and biodiversity at the University of Queensland, points out the significant opportunities for social media companies to seize in conservation efforts by refining their algorithms.

“There is currently no automated way to collect this information, and it was a very arduous task for us to do it manually. We hope our research can inspire the development of technology such as an app that transfers biodiversity data posted on Facebook directly to the global biodiversity databases,” he elaborates. “This way, conservation scientists can easily access that data and use it.”

This is how we are finding new ways to use social media for nice purposes. If you know any other similar case, don’t be shy and share with us!