Emerging Conservation Needs and Priorities

When field experts conversant with the Sonoran bioregion were asked what they felt should be the number one priority for conservation, they responded in a variety of ways, noting policy issues, research and education needs, action strategies, as well as earmarking species, habitats or landscapes in critical need of conservation. We have organized their suggestions topically, and list their comments within each topic in no particular (weighted) order.

1. Research Needs

Among the research needs cited as conservation priorities were the need to:

A. Realize biogeographic studies to discern regional patterns of biodiversity.
B. Determine areas of high diversity of invertebrates, and compare those with areas identified as high in species richness of plants and vertebrates.
C. Identify through banding and capture-recapture the most frequently used corridors for nectar-feeding bats, hummingbirds, monarchs and other pollinators at risk.
D. Identify areas of high endemism across taxonomic groups.
E. Determine which habitat types have less than 8% of the area protected.

2. Educational needs

Among the educational needs cited as conservation priorities were the need to:

A. Increase or redirect public understanding so that laymen appreciate the dynamics and constraints of arid ecosystems.
B. Synthesize and disseminate basic knowledge about the value of desert ecosystems to build a larger public constituency.
C. Train indigenous residents of remote rural areas in techniques for surveying, monitoring, restoring and conserving endemics and locally endangered species.
D. Train and build capacity of more "rangers" and environmental educators in all Mexican protected areas.

3. Need to shift society's consumption patterns, behaviors and perceptions

Among the behaviors, consumption patterns and perceptions seen as priorities for conservation education were the need to:

A. Increase family planning to control human population growth.
B. Shift away from social and economic systems that reward consumptive behaviors and short-term gain while damaging natural systems.
C. Amend patterns of consumption to dramatically reduce the occupancy footprint.
D. Foster conservation through promoting sustainable development and less consumptive lifestyles or land uses.
E. Alter human values so that we are truly responsible for the real implications of our actions.
F. Reward conservation-oriented residents and businesses by creating disincentives for consumptive behaviors that create life risks.
G. Seek alternative economic activities for communities or families formerly dependent on extractive activities, particularly in and around protected areas.
H. Develop additional collaborations between field scientists, conservationists and progressive ranchers to purchase or place deed restrictions on land threatened with subdivision.
I. Foster reciprocal exchange of technical information on biodiversity and threats across the intemational border, and between resident cultures of the region.

4. Land/water management and resource protection policies

Among the land, water and resource management policies seen as conservation priorities were the need to:

A. Halt or mitigate all barriers which are fragmenting corridors and critical habitats required by native migratory and resident species.
B. Establish zoning to control (urban) development with buffers of 16 km. width around all protected areas especially where wildlands include natural corridors such as rivers and washes.
C. Limit growth of residential and commercial occupancy to within natural carrying capacity.
D. Preserve largest tracts of remaining habitat rich in unique biota by limiting intrusions into them, including urban sprawl.
E. Mandate the preservation of a certain portion of natural habitats remaining in new residential developments and industrial parks.
F. Give priority protection to areas which have artesian flows of water into oases, cienegas or other wetlands, and to springs/seeps of all kinds.
G. Ensure protection of coastal lagoons and estuaries as spawning and nursery grounds.
H. Establish cross-boundary chains of reserves along riparian and "nectar" corridors used by migratory birds and wide-ranging mammals.
I. Establish incentives to keep current farmland from being subdivided for urban or suburban development, and give tax breaks for pesticide free crop production.
J. Place strict controls on the introduction and planting of exotics.
K. Protect lowland basins between mountain ranges as migratory corridors.

5. Land, water and vegetation management practices

Among the on-ground management practices recommended were the need to:

A. Reduce the maximum number of cows (cattle units) allowed per grazing allotment.
B. Burn grasslands regularly.
C. Establish a regional ecological restoration plan and restore riparian habitats to their former structure.
D. Prohibit wholesale clearing of native vegetation for exotic pasture grass planting for livestock.
E. Retain and protect willows and cottonwoods recruited after catastrophic floods.
F. Keep cattle out of riparian areas during periods of willow and cottonwood seedling establishment.
G. Limit groundwater extraction where it is greater than annual recharge rates.
H. Eliminate dams and other artificial water impoundments that have silted-in wherever there is a capacity for streams to flow uninterrupted again.
1. Limit flood control and artificial channelization engineering schemes to only those areas where human welfare is directly and frequently affected.
J. Prohibit plantings of exotic species or ecotypes along highways and along irrigation canals.
K. Limit any cutting of mesquite or ironwood to pruning by handaxes, and avoid any chainsawing of these trees below 1 meter aboveground.
L. Manage irrigation tailwaters and primary-treated sewage to restore the wetlands of the Colorado River delta.

 

"Let us assume that the next stage in the West will not be a mere continuation of the present. What then might we expect? What should we work for? Now no one could reliably predict a detailed blueprint for a posthydraulic society ...But one could confidently say that there are certain general strategies the West is going to have to pursue if it wants to find its way toward a more open, free, and democratic society. Those strategies must begin with a new relation to nature and a new technics."

-Donald Worster
Rivers of Empire (1985)

"Desert residents are using more water than is being replenished into the region's water supply accounts. If this 'deficit spending' continues, the available non-renewable supplies of water will eventually be depleted. We owe it to future generations to carefully consider the choices we make today in where and how we use our precious desert waters... [While] individual action in conserving water is critical, ...it is not enough. We also need to support conservation efforts on a larger scale. For example, working together we can raise awareness about the critical importance of riparian habitats to the future health of Sonoran Desert ecosystems [from] promoting laws and regulations that protect the existing flows of streams and washes, to championing planning and zoning regulations that preserve sensitive riparian areas and native vegetation."

- Nancy Laney. Desert Waters: From Ancient Aquifers to Modern Demands (1997)

"Probably more than 5% of [North American] lands and waters are overrun by the most aggressive of the more than 2000 species of exotic or alien plants [including] nearly 200 of approximately 250 National Park Service units [and] 60% of The Nature Conservancy's preserves ...[We must] support proposals by resource managers to address species invasions. Proposals to combat weeds or, especially, introduced mammals, often generate opposition from people who do not understand the environmental cost paid for allowing the newcomer to remain... Remember we have forfeited the 'easy' solutions when we failed to halt these invaders ...or when we first became aware of their presence. Now we have to face the need to use more drastic measures."

- Faith Thompson Campbell
"While mapping wildlands, don't forget the aliens," Wild Earth (1997)