Caveats on conservation culturomics (Letter)

COVID-19 restrictions in 2020 saw declines in visits and Google® searches for national parks in many countries, depending on lockdown rules and social structures (Souza et al., 2021). I should like to express concern that their title phrase, “No visit, no interest” could potentially prove misleading, with political risks for conservation. A casual reader, or a commercial development advocate using academic research as ammunition, could misinterpret the article as implying an erroneous global link between tourism and conservation. At careful reading, their analysis does not make any such claim. But lobbyists are not interested in careful analysis. If this article is summarised carelessly in popular online mass media, it could readily be used to promote private tourism development in public protected areas. Biological conservation is a scientific discipline embedded in a political field, so caution is needed (Buckley, 2016).