Publications, target groups, methods and applications in the communication of biodiversity

One of the main goals of conservation biology is protection of biodiversity. Some important new tools to achieve this goal are science education and communication to the public, as well as communication of scientific research results for decision makers. Objectives of this study were (1) to investigate what are the main topics in science on communicating the concept of biodiversity, what are the best methods for communicating this concept and (2) to communicate the concept of biodiversity to local community. To obtain more accurate and systematic results, we were working with special settings and metadata of Google Scholar, Web of Science and Scopus. We have analysed the metadata of all the results and 30 highly cited articles, making citation networks using CitationGecko. The results of our analysis showed that we need metaphors, storytelling, strong emotions and framing techniques to reach the policy-makers and non-scientists. To strengthen the nature – people relationship we need local projects. We have started our local work in promoting the notion of biodiversity 2 years ago. Our innovative idea is to present and provide knowledge to local communities not only on diversity of species, but also an ecological diversity using interactive workshops. In this context we have developed a series of games in order to better know and understand our local and regional values.