Biodiversity is a shifting and difficult concept for scientists to evaluate and managers to apply to decision making. Although there are well-documented difficulties with defining “biodiversity”, a clear benefit of accepting biodiversity as a goal for conservation is that it shifts the emphasis of management efforts from charismatic species to the gamut of organisms and the interactions between them. Despite its wide-ranging scope, biodiversity is currently best measured using the species as the basic unit. Because an overwhelming majority of species on the planet are invertebrates, these organisms should be greatly represented in conservation management. The adoption of biodiversity into conservation strategies provides opportunities to set new priorities, considering invertebrates and their conservation requirements as well as those of currently prominent taxa. In redressing the imbalance between invertebrates and vertebrates in conservation strategies it is clear that not only must certain invertebrate taxa be prioritized above others, but also that the fundamental understanding of the ecology of many invertebrates is often inadequate for detailed management strategies to be developed without a commitment to further detailed research. Hence, although conventional approaches to conservation may be applied to certain relatively well-known invertebrate species, the pursuit of a greater understanding of the distribution and abundance of these organisms and the factors affecting them is a key to developing informed and justifiable approaches to the conservation of invertebrates.