Nature photographers on social media are proving to be instrumental in defending biodiversity in South Asia, with the potential for this methodology to be adopted on a worldwide scale. Led by Dr Shawan Chowdhury from UQ’s College of the Atmosphere, a world workforce utilized Fb nature images teams in Bangladesh to contribute invaluable information to the International Biodiversity Info Facility database.
Impressively, the workforce uncovered a staggering 44,000 images that includes practically 1,000 animal species, together with quite a few birds and bugs. Of those, a exceptional 288 species have been recognized as threatened in Bangladesh. This in depth assortment of pictures has considerably enhanced habitat mapping all through the nation, the place a mere 4.6% of land is presently designated as protected.
The analysis yielded thrilling outcomes, figuring out extra high-priority conservation areas encompassing 4,000 sq. kilometers for birds and 10,000 sq. kilometers for butterflies. Notably, the workforce found distribution information for a whole bunch of endangered species that was beforehand unaccounted for in Bangladesh, marking a big breakthrough for conservation efforts within the area.
Dr Chowdhury emphasised the potential impression of this discovery, stating, “This might change the way in which scientists collect biodiversity data sooner or later, particularly in areas the place there’s a lack of dependable and up-to-date structured monitoring to tell conservation efforts.”
In Australia, related efforts are underway to make use of social media posts for monitoring pest species. Dr Chowdhury defined, “A South Asian butterfly, often called the tawny coster, made its approach to Australia in 2012. By looking for extra locality data on Fb, we have been in a position to analyze the motion, ecology, and colonization standing of this species. Our findings revealed that it expanded at a median price of 135 kilometers per yr between 2012 and 2020.”
Co-author Professor Richard Fuller from UQ highlighted the function of social media firms on this transformative course of, noting, “There’s presently no automated approach to accumulate this data, and it was a really arduous process for us to do it manually. We hope our analysis can encourage the event of expertise similar to an app that transfers biodiversity information posted on Fb on to the worldwide biodiversity databases. This manner, conservation scientists can simply entry that information and use it.”
This examine has been printed in scientific journals, together with Bioscience, One Earth, and Conservation Biology. Dr Chowdhury, who can also be affiliated with the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Analysis, the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Analysis, and the Friedrich Schiller College Jena, continues to pioneer progressive approaches to biodiversity conservation.
