Abstract: Site pointed conservation efforts on scattered areas and population species have not been sufficient to stop the enormous habitat shrinking in most tropical areas. Innovative approaches to comprise holistic ecosystem dynamic processes need to be pursuit to eventually increase conservation of the habitats and therefore their species concerned. In Mexico most conservation effort has followed the pure species approach, and littler concern was given to habitat holistic consideration. In the last fifteen years we conducted a research program to search for complementary conservation approaches to eventually reach practical conservation actions. The volcano rabbit (Romerolagus diazi) was chosen as the umbrella species. Data of over 6000 records, from all vascular plants and vertebrate plant species were used to depict areas of relevant importance for conservation. In addition current protected areas were overlapped and land use/cover change analysis was carried out to measure the effectiveness of the present conservation effort. These data were used to construct a model to enhance conservation actions and eventually to revert environmental degradation. A network of highly connected core and buffer protected areas was obtained as a major output. Local stakeholders and authorities of the local government were involved in order to implement the newly proposed network through a participatory scheme. A monitoring strategy is undergoing to eventually reach a conservation of about 2 % of the global biodiversity occurring in the area.