Twitter Mining for Detecting Interest Trends on Biodiversity: Messages from Seven Language Communities

Abstract

The recent rates of global change in nature are unprecedented in human history. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has proposed a framework to achieve transformative change. Transformative change with respect to nature will be driven by recognizing the values people have; making inclusive decisions based on these values; restructuring policies, rights, and regulations in accordance with them; and transforming social norms and goals that can drive change. Social media is a new source of information and a modern tool for monitoring public opinion on human–nature interactions. This study identified commonalities among seven language communities (the six official languages of the United Nations and the Japanese language), demonstrating the uniqueness of the Japanese community by comparing hashtags in tweets that include the term biodiversity and determining differences in interest and concern about biodiversity from the past to the present. Tweets accessible at the end of 2021 that focus on biodiversity were collected from the Twitter server and used to form a text dataset. Interest was then qualitatively and quantitatively identified using natural language processing technology. Engagements and diversity indices were found to be on the rise in all language communities. We found that the Japanese language community has a different perspective on the relationship between biodiversity and humans from the scope of the IPBES conceptual framework. Future work should examine the relationship between passion for biodiversity and the Sustainable Development Goals. In addition, collaboration with various people around the world is necessary to understand the concept of biodiversity in different traditions and cultures.