Citizen science plays a crucial role in helping monitor biodiversity and inform conservation. With the widespread use of smartphones, many people share biodiversity information on social media, but this information is still not widely used in conservation. Focusing on Bangladesh, a tropical megadiverse and mega-populated country, we examined the importance of social media records in conservation decision-making. We collated species distribution records for birds and butterflies from Facebook and Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), grouped them into GBIF-only and combined GBIF and Facebook data, and investigated the differences in identifying critical conservation areas. Adding Facebook data to GBIF data improved the accuracy of systematic conservation planning assessments by identifying additional important conservation areas in the northwest, southeast, and central parts of Bangladesh, extending priority conservation areas by 4,000-10,000 km2 . Community efforts are needed to drive the implementation of the ambitious Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework targets, especially in megadiverse tropical countries with a lack of reliable and up-to-date species distribution data. We highlight that conservation planning can be enhanced by including available data gathered from social media platforms.

Registros de las redes sociales para guiar la planeación de la conservación Resumen La ciencia ciudadana es importante para monitorear la biodiversidad e informar la conservación. Con el creciente uso de los teléfonos inteligentes, muchas personas comparten información de la biodiversidad en redes sociales, pero todavía no se usa ampliamente en la conservación. Analizamos la importancia de los registros de las redes sociales para las decisiones de conservación enfocados en Bangladesh, un país tropical megadiverso y mega poblado. Cotejamos los registros de distribución de especies de aves y mariposas en Facebook y Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), las agrupamos en datos sólo de GBIF o datos combinados de Facebook y GBIF e investigamos las diferencias en la identificación de las áreas de conservación críticas. La combinación de los datos de Facebook con los de GBIF mejoró la precisión de las evaluaciones de la planeación de la conservación sistemática al identificar otras áreas importantes de conservación en el noroeste, sureste y centro de Bangladesh, extendiendo así las áreas prioritarias de conservación en unos 4,000-10,000 km2 . Se requieren esfuerzos comunitarios para impulsar la implementación de los objetivos ambiciosos del Marco Global de Biodiversidad Kunming-Montreal, especialmente en países tropicales que carecen de datos confiables y actuales sobre la distribución de las especies. Destacamos que la planeación de la conservación puede mejorarse si se incluye información tomada de las redes sociales.

Biodiversity Unit University of Turku Turku Finland

Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences Institute of Hydrobiology České Budějovice Czech Republic

CIBIO InBIO Centro de Investigação Em Biodiversidade E Recursos Genéticos Universidade Do Porto Vairão Portugal

Department of Biology and Biotechnologies Sapienza University of Rome Rome Italy

Department of Ecosystem Services Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research UFZ Leipzig Germany

Department of Geosciences and Geography University of Helsinki Helsinki Finland

Department of Marine Renewable Resources Institute of Marine Sciences Barcelona Spain

Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center University of Florida Davie Florida USA

Department of Zoology University of Dhaka Dhaka Bangladesh

German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research Halle Jena Leipzig Leipzig Germany

Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science University of Helsinki Helsinki Finland

Institute of Biodiversity Friedrich Schiller University Jena Jena Germany

Institute of Biological and Health Sciences Federal University of Alagoas Maceió Brazil

Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research Ben Gurion University of the Negev Midreshet Ben Gurion Israel

School of Biological Sciences The University of Queensland St Lucia Queensland Australia

School of Life Sciences University of KwaZulu Natal Durban South Africa

Université Paris Saclay CNRS AgroParisTech Ecologie Systématique Evolution Orsay France

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Leveraging social media and other online data to study animal behavior

Emerging technologies in citizen science and potential for insect monitoring