Juan, here is a link to a book on conservation of rare species. I became aware of this resource while working at the US Forest Service, related to the Northwest Forest Plan. Of course there are other resources on the topic, but this one stands out as having especially good advice since the USA Pacific Northwest is notorious for a focus on single species management (especially characteristic megafauna). I hope this helps. Seth

http://islandpress.org/ip/books/book/islandpress/C/bo7019362.html

Thank you very much Seth! Do you know if there is some other contribution on this issue, but paying attention to the marine ecosystems?

But, many widespread species tend to be locally abundant in certain areas and relatively rare in others habitat.

Koushik, I think it is generally the case that conservation is focused on the rare and endangered, and increasingly on EDGE species (e.g. Evolutionary Distinct i.e. unique, and also Endangered). But I agree, most attention is still focused on vertebrates, I think partly because these have more appeal / higher attention, but also because they are more likely to have the data and monitoring processes in place that allows their rarity or status to be assessed. When conservation of figurehead vertebrates brings with it the requirement for conservation of intact ecosystems this is less of an issue, but many other interventions are species-specific. There is a wide literature discussing how Ex Situ breeding would be better focused on small and easy to breed species, including invertebrates. We produced a paper examining how conservation priority setting can be widened to consider a full complement of biodiversity rather than the narrow focus that is more common, but this really does need comprehensive biological inventory and understanding of the status of a multitude of poorly known species.

Thank you very much Paul, Simon and  Koushik. Paul, could you give me the reference of your produced paper? I agree with your opinion completely. In fact the IUCN itself refers specifically to mammals, birds, reptiules, anphibiuans and fishes, letting the "invertebrates" as a whole.

Dear Juan Lucas, the paper I mentioned was:  Dolman, P.M., Panter, C.J., Mossman, H.L. (2012) The Biodiversity Audit Approach challenges regional priorities and identifies a mismatch in conservation. Journal of Applied Ecology 49, 986–997. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2012.02174.x/pdf. It is an open access publication.

I don't think it is strictly true that IUCN completely leaves the invertebrates alone, there are invertebrate species on the IUCN Red Lists. But disproportionately few given the numbers of their species - most likely due to sparse data?

Thanks Paul. Yes, the IUCN doesn't leave the invertebrates alone, but the comparison between vertebrates and invertebrates shows a huge differences. Reasons? I think there is a complex of reasons, not only the availability of data: funding, human resources, appeal by humans (the Society),...and of course, the available data. But, I think that all of these reasons constitute a negative feed-back.

The information gap on invertebrate taxa is another major reason global conservation trends have been centred around vertebrates and plants despite the fact that invertebrates constitute a larger group than any other.

Hello Juan,

I have studied desert spring invertebrates in the southwestern USA and there are a bunch of point endemics and rare/uncommon invertebrates in these unique desert aquatic ecosystems. Some of them are protected under Endangered species Act but still there are large gaps in the knowledge of these rare and endemic invertebrates. I am aware of a few publications talking about the conservation of desert aquatic invertebrates. Here are a few papers/book chapters.

Shepard WD. 1990. Microcylloepus formicoideus (Coleoptera: Elmidae), A new riffle beetle from Death Valley National Monument, California. Entomological News 101: 147-153.

Shepard WD. 1993. Desert springs-both rare and endangered. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 3: 351-359.

Unmack PJ, Minckley WL. 2008. The demise of desert springs. In Aridland springs of North America: ecology and conservation, Stevens LE, Meretsky VJ (eds). Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Studies in Natural History, The University of Arizona Press, Tucson; 11-34.

All the best.

Thank you very much Sujan !!!!

Sergei, thank you very much for the informatuion about this book. I have see that it is even translate in Spanish!!!!!

Sergei, I'll check in my universitary library. Thanks again.

Bueno Juan Lucas en la peninsula puedes consultar los trabajos de Cardoso, como el que te adjunto hacen hincapie en estos temas. Tambien algunos invertebrados han recibido atencion en los LR de invertebrados de España(particularmente los moluscos) . Ahora bien en mi opinión hay más invertebrados que investigadores interesados en estos temas. 

Article Adapting the IUCN Red List criteria for invertebrates

Muchas gracias Miguel angel. Estoy totalmente de acuerdo con tu ultima apreciación...y eso es un problema.

The conservation of species is increasingly linked to the creation of conservation areas. Unfortunately I do not know of works on the subject. But this may be a direction in the search for interesting articles.

Dear Juan,

I feel biodiversity conservation is cultural, not just scientific business; we should learn from each culture and find deeper awareness in simple descriptive approaches: natural history. And finally, its not about rare, common or protected areas - its about a broader appreciation, education, recreation, cultural evolution. In the end a world for humans, full of (wild) life. Its a life management thing.  My best regards.

Dear Stamatis,

You're right, but the problem is that it seems like if many of the so-called scientists forget this, maybe due to some own interest, isn't it?