Are the endemic water beetles of the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands effectively protected?

One of the most serious environmental problems is the current acceleration in the rate of species extinction associated with human activities, which is occurring particularly rapidly in freshwaters. Here we examine whether endemic water beetles are effectively protected by existing conservation measures in the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands, a region of high diversity and intense human pressure. We used an exhaustive database for aquatic beetles in the region to address such issues. Firstly, we identify the most threatened endemic taxa using a categorization system to rank species according to their conservation priority or vulnerability. Of the 120 endemic species of water beetles used in the analysis, only two (Ochthebiusferroi and Ochthebius javieri) were identified as being extremely vulnerable, 71 were highly vulnerable and 46 moderately vulnerable, with only a single species identified as having low vulnerability status. Since no Iberian species of aquatic Coleoptera has legal protection, the only conservation measure available for these species is the extent to which they occur in protected areas. Here we identify distributional hotspots for threatened endemic species, and evaluate the extent to which these are already included in the Natura 2000 network in Spain and Portugal. Despite a high degree of concordance between hotspots and Natura 2000 sites, the distribution of four species falls completely outside the network. The analysis also reveals that Natura 2000 fails to protect saline water bodies, despite their high conservation interest and narrow global distribution. The picture revealed here with water beetles is likely to be similar for others groups of freshwater macroinvertebrates, since Coleoptera are known to be good surrogates of aquatic biodiversity in the region. Finally, the degree of protection provided via Natura 2000, and the utility of red lists are discussed. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.