CABS Invertebrate Diversity Initiative

Did you know the Conservation International's Center for Applied Biodiversity Science (CABS) has an Invertebrate Diversity Initiative? Here is what they say about the spineless:

Invertebrate Diversity Initiative

More than 95 percent of the Earth's animal species are invertebrates (animals without backbones). They can be found in all habitats of the planet, from polar regions to rainforests to the greatest depths of the oceans. The number of invertebrate species living today is estimated to be between 3 and 15 million. By comparison, there are only about 47,000 species of vertebrates.

While most invertebrates are smaller than the smallest of vertebrates, the ecological services invertebrates provide are immeasurable, and life as we know it would cease to exist without them. Yet despite the ubiquity and unparalleled role invertebrates play in our planet's ecosystems they receive little or no attention from general public or conservation authorities.

To help remedy this situation, CABS launched the Invertebrate Diversity Initiative (IDI) in 2002, a program designed to promote invertebrates in conservation practices, both as indicators of the ecosystem health and subject of conservation actions.
(emphasis my own)

CABS is officially a Friend of the Invertebrates here at TO95.