Overcoming Impediments to invertebrate conservation

The seven impediments in invertebrate conservation and how to overcome them

Pedro Cardoso, Terry L. Erwin,Paulo A.V. Borges, Tim R. New
Biological Conservation
Volume 144, Issue 11, November 2011, Pages 2647-2655

Invertebrates often get step motherly treatment in biodiversity conservation policies despite their high diversity and importance for humankind. In this paper the researchers identify seven impediments to the effective protection of Invertebrates.

They are 
(1)    Invertebrates and their ecological services are mostly unknown to the general public (the public dilemma);

(2)Policymakers and stakeholders are mostly unaware of invertebrate conservation problems (the political dilemma);

(3)     Basic science on invertebrates is scarce and under funded (the scientific dilemma); 
(4)     Most species are undescribed (the   Linnean shortfall); 

(5) The distribution of described species is mostly unknown (the Wallacean shortfall);

(6) The abundance of species and their changes in space and time are unknown (the Prestonian shortfall);

(7) Species ways of life and sensitivities to habitat change are largely unknown (the Hutchinsonian shortfall).

The researchers say recent advances in science facilitate overcoming these impediments in both policy and practice.


Here are the suggestions from the researchers 

For the political dilemma: red-listing, legal priority listing and inclusion in environmental impact assessment studies.  For the scientific dilemma: parataxonomy, citizen science programs and biodiversity informatics.
For the Linnean shortfall: biodiversity surrogacy, increased support for taxonomy and advances in taxonomic publications.
 For the Wallacean shortfall: funding of inventories, compilation of data in public repositories and species distribution modeling.
For the Prestonian shortfall: standardized protocols for inventorying and monitoring, widespread use of analogous protocols and increased support for natural history collections.
 For the Hutchinsonian shortfall: identifying good indicator taxa and studying extinction rates by indirect evidence.