I Love Biodiversity

A corker of an idea, and post, from Diogo Veríssimo.

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I don’t like biodiversity. I like beef lasagna, I like the British museum and I like everything Jules Verne ever wrote. When it comes to biodiversity, it’s different. I think about it all the time, try to be close to it and suffer emotional distress when I think of it going irretrievably away. This is LOVE.

Understanding how to get this passion across effectively has always been one of my main goals. That is why my research has focused on the links between marketing and conservation. But recently I started feeling a bit more empowered to take this mission seriously, and all thanks to the Facebook page I fucking love Science. This page became an internet sensation amassing more than 5 million fans and engaging frequently over 4 million users in any given week. Forget the New York Times and National Geographic, this is the real deal.

So I wondered, why can’t I do the same for biodiversity? The idea lingered in my head until I read a recent paper by McCallum and Bury on Google search patterns, which shows how even during the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity we are failing to mainstream biodiversity and its associated issues. If fact, people seem to be less interested. Whatever we are doing is clearly not working. So why not give this concept a try? And so I f****** love Biodiversity (IFLB) was born.

The idea of having a Facebook page about biodiversity is of course by no means original. But I want to go about it in a slightly different way. First, I want IFLB to be all about fun and positive messaging, no more guilt, righteousness or fear, these link feelings of awe and curiosity with the natural world. Second, I strive to make IFLB as jargon free as possible, without dumbing down the content, as to allow anyone from any background to understand the content easily. Third, I want to make sure the page makes full use of what businesses have learned about social media user engagement, and there is lots of it, although even major conservation NGOs often ignore it.

Although, IFLB has only been going for a couple of weeks, I have already learned a lot while researching the content for the page. From facts about some outrageously awesome species and updates newly discovered ones, to biodiversity-themed internet memes and our series dedicated to species named after celebrities, our daily posts offer something to both the biodiversity veteran and the “cannot-tell-a-sparrow-from-a-peacock” novice.

The response has been great: almost 700 fans in two weeks. Sure it’s not quite at the same level as Skittles with their 25 million fans or Lady Gaga with her 58 million, but if you think biodiversity should actually have more than both of them combined, why not become a fan? Time to show the world just how loveable biodiversity can be.

Diogo Veríssimo