Assessing global popularity and threats to Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas using social media data

Understanding worldwide patterns of human use of sites of international significance for biodiversity conservation is crucial for meeting global conservation targets. However, robust global datasets are scarce. In this study, we used social media data, mined from Flickr and Twitter, geolocated in Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) to assess i) patterns of popularity; ii) relationships of this popularitywith geographical and biological variables; and iii) identify sites under high pressure fromvisitors. IBAs located in Europe and Asia, and in temperate biomes, had the highest density of users. Sites of importance for congregatory species, which were also more accessible, more densely populated and provided more tourism facilities, received higher visitation than did sites richer in bird species. Wefound 17% of all IBAs assessed to be under very high threat also received high visitation. Our results showinwhich IBAs enhancedmonitoring should be implemented to reduce potential visitation risks to sites of conservation concern for birds, and to harness the potential benefits of tourism for conservation. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.