Authors: De Oliveira Caetano, Gabriel; Vardi, Reut;Jaric, Ivan;Correia, Ricardo;Roll, Uri;Veríssimo, Diogo;

The Convention for Biological Diversity first target for the last decade was to increase awareness of biodiversity and conservation. Public awareness of biodiversity and conservation is important for fostering pro-conservation behavior and advocacy. We used data on Google searches to evaluate the success in achieving this target, and investigated the socioeconomic factors driving differences between countries. We found partial success for the target globally. Global interest for biodiversity increased, driven mostly by charismatic fauna, while interest for conservation decreased, driven mostly by a decline in searches for national parks after the 2019 pandemic. Economic inequality had a negative effect in interest for biodiversity and conservation, while purchasing power had an indirect positive effect through education and research. Interest for biodiversity and conservation may be increased in the next decade with outreach campaigns focusing on charismatic species, institutional support for national parks, environmental education, conservation research and reduction of economic inequality.