FAQs

The Biodiversity Professionals group began as an way to gather like-minded folks under one umbrella. The group was founded on LinkedIn in 2010, the UN’s Year of Biodiversity. Since then, the group has grown to more than 14,000 members (as of March 2014). We believe it is the biggest social media group that is focused on biodiversity conservation.

Our LinkedIn group comprises folks from all walks of life who are interested in issues related to biodiversity and its conservation. This is a wide tent, with scientists, researchers, students, educators, media professionals, policy makers and industry or corporate representatives. Our members are typically engaged in issues related to conservation, wildlife, natural resources and sustainability.

To be a member of Biodiversity Professionals, you need to join LinkedIn. Use of LinkedIn is free. However, we welcome anyone who is interested in our activities to follow our social media presence on Google Plus or Twitter. Both of these require you to create accounts on the respective platform. We do not have a presence on Facebook.

The group welcomes anyone with an interest in biodiversity, whether as a professional or as an enthusiastic supporter of biodiversity conservation.

As our group has grown, we have experienced a number of limitations with LinkedIn. For example, discussions posted to the main group page are not organized or categorized, so over time thoughts, ideas and suggestions are buried, and can be difficult to retrieve. Also there is no way for members to post photos or videos on the LinkedIn group’s page. Another reason to build a separate website is to extend our reach and influence beyond LinkedIn. We can create specialty articles on the site blog with maps, images and other features not possible on LinkedIn. With our presence on Twitter and Google Plus, we can use this additional content to reach audiences who are not on LinkedIn.

The Global Biodiversity Institute is envisaged as the activist arm of Biodiversity Professionals. It represents a core of Biodiversity Professionals who are willing to commit to the realizing the mission and vision of our group. The GBI is still very much in its formative stages, so we encourage and need input and feedback. For more information, please visit our Global Biodiversity Institute website, and participate in our discussions on the LinkedIn subgroup or the GBI forum page.

We’re excited about the future of our group! Our immediate plans are to continue growing the group. There is no reason why we should not have 20,000 or 50,000 members in the group. With that many people, it can be challenging to get a focus and direction. The Global Biodiversity Institute will hopefully serve that purpose, to be a rallying point for those members of the group who want to make a greater commitment to driving the change we need to conserve Earth’s biodiversity.