What's Next?

It is dear that there is much reported by the field scientists surveyed here that bears reflection, discussion, debate and action. It is also abundantly evident that scientists' attention is not spread evenly across the biotic communities of the bioregion -- some habitats such as mangrove swamps, riparian gallery forests and semidesert grasslands south of the U.S./Mexico border are irregularly visited by biologists and poorly monitored relative to their significance. The status of nocturnal animals --from long-tongued bats to jaguars to hawkmoths - are poorly known compared to that of day-timers. Similarly, the rare herbaceous plants which episodically emerge and flower during the heat of the summer are hardly known compared to winter wildflowers. And despite the fact that the Sonoran Desert is an arid horseshoe rimming a hypersaline sea, both its marine life and island life are underappreciated by desert ecologists with regard to their contributions to biodiversity. Few scientists link the effects in desert watersheds to this marine biodiversity.

There are four problems identified as the emerging issues which still require considerable discussion if they are to be resolved for the region:

1. The need for urban planning and agricultural lands restoration to allow for continuous corridors for wildlife passage through urban areas where their movements are currently blocked.

2. The need for guaranteeing river flow into coastal lagoons and estuaries of the Gulf of California (including the Colorado River delta) to ensure nutrient and fresh water flow essential to nursery grounds for invertebrates, fish, and waterfowl.

3. The need to redirect the management of critical habitats in state parks, wildlife refuges and national monuments away from recreation or protection of single species or features; focus needs to shift to overall biodiversity and the integrity of habitats so that interactions between species and natural communities persist.

4. The need for planning that reduces impacts of coastal and island development in the Gulf of California region where endemism is the highest.

What is most obvious from this report is that the Sonoran Desert has suffered from a dramatic intensification of multiple threats and pressures over the last fifty to twenty-five years. No one organization, no single strategy, can possibly deal with the magnitude and diversity of these threats on both sides of the border. It is time for conservation biologists and activists to carefully assess where each of their efforts can have the most effect on protecting biodiversity, and develop a comprehensive plan of complementary actions to save this desert region's remaining biological riches. Without such a coordinated effort across borders, and across habitat types, we will enter the next millennium incapable of mobilizing sufficient support to safeguard a representative sample of the region's biodiversity against the myriad stresses now affecting it.