Harnessing YouTube in advancing biodiversity conservation efforts and awareness across Africa

Abstract

YouTube (YT), an online video content application, has revolutionized the dissemination of information in various fields, including medicine, entertainment, and conservation science. Its potential in disseminating biodiversity conservation information has not been well assessed, especially in Africa, a biodiversity hotspot. When such assessments are conducted, they are usually species-specific, activity-based, or localized, making broader generalizations difficult. We evaluated the viewership and interaction of the videos posted about Africa across different organism groups, countries (geopolitical units), geographical regions, ecoregions, and channels (content creators). We assessed 431 videos, which collectively garnered 32,630,126 views, 364,700 likes, and 48,839 comments across 274 channels, five regions, and 31 African countries. The mean daily views varied significantly across countries, regions organism groups, and channels. Notably, more views per day were from biodiversity-rich countries, such as Madagascar, and most videos were posted from South Africa. Government and academic institutions posted fewer videos than individually owned and international biodiversity-related non-governmental organization (NGO) channels. Also, most channels posting about African biodiversity are based in the United States of America. Increased attention to biodiversity through social media engagement will likely stimulate external funding, international collaborations, policymaking, and participatory programs, benefiting both the public and organizations such as NGOs and governments. We observed a great need for increased participation by African-based content creators, primarily by government institutions, to effectively adopt a strong social media strategy to communicate information about biodiversity conservation, especially to the growing online population.

Keywords: Climate change; Invasive species; Social media platforms; Species extinction; Topical analysis.

Figure 1. Total number of videos posted from each country.

These were compared for videos that were based on a specific country. South Africa was only included as the country, not as a region. Countries with fewer than ten videos were categorized as others.

Figure 2. Video views, likes and comments per day from different African countries.

Total number of videos, mean views per day, likes per day, and comments per day across African countries. The mean values were log-transformed to visualize even the small numbers. Only countries in Africa with at least five videos were visualized.

Figure 3. Videos posted from African ecoregions.

Mean views per day for the ecoregions found in Africa.

Figure 4. Number of videos views, likes and comments per day form different organism groups.

Total number of videos, mean views per day (vpd), likes per day (lpd), and comments per day (cpd) across the lower organism ranks in Africa. We log-transformed the mean values to visualize small values, which led to a negative scale in both the views, likes, and comments per day graphs.

Figure 5. Content providers/channels and the countries where they are hosted.