The Chihuahuan Desert: A Binational Conservation Response to Protect a Global Treasure

Abstract

Abstract Occupying over 140,000\xa0km2 (54,000\xa0mi2), the Chihuahuan Desert is the second largest desert in North America and includes much of the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi, as well as large parts of New Mexico and the Trans-Pecos region of Texas in the U.S. Of the arid ecoregions in the world, the Chihuahuan Desert ranks at the top with regard to plant diversity. This incredible ecoregion is also noted for its endemism, with over 670 species of plants and nearly half of its freshwater fish found nowhere else in the world. The Chihuahuan Desert faces a variety of threats, including habitat loss and fragmentation, climate change, changing wild fire regimes, and deterioration of its freshwater resources. We review these threats as well as the conservation response to them, which includes a diversity of public-private partnerships operating at regional to local scales. We conclude with a summary of conservation priorities for the future, which highlights the importance of a binational response that directly addresses the main drivers of decline, is based on lessons learned from past conservation efforts, expands natural resource monitoring, and builds on momentum of small scale conservation efforts for greater impact.