About the Conservation Implementation Plan
The Sonoran Joint Venture depends on strong partnerships to help us reach our joint conservation goals. The SJV Conservation Implementation Plan (CIP) is a blueprint for how the SJV partnership prioritizes and undertakes bird and habitat conservation in the region. It takes broad conservation priorities and issues from throughout the SJV region and focuses them to allow partners to better connect their work to SJV priorities. It also serves as a mechanism for SJV staff to develop annual work plans and reports to measure progress towards big picture goals and objectives. The CIP helps ensure we focus SJV resources on the partnership’s biggest priorities and areas where we have a clear role to play and contributions to make. It is updated every five years, in addition to annual work plans based on the CIP.
The CIP initially includes six focal ecosystems: aridlands, grasslands, forests, coastal wetlands, islands, and riparian systems and freshwater wetlands. These six systems include some of the highest priority birds and habitats identified in international and national bird conservation plans like Partners In Flight, the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, the U.S. Shorebird Conservation Plan, and Waterbirds for the Americas. In addition, we selected them because the SJV has strong partnerships or potential for new partnerships in the area, others are not currently doing landscape-level work there, and/or SJV staff and partnerships have something substantial to contribute.
The CIP is our best effort to make measurable contributions to bird and habitat conservation in the region in a way that brings partners from both sides of the border together. This plan is a living document, and we will update it every five years. Focal ecosystems may change or expand, as indicated by conservation need, partner desire, and management board and science working group direction.
» The plan will be available for download soon.
Focal Ecosystems
Arid Borderlands
The 2014 State of the Birds Report lists aridlands as home to the steepest declining bird populations in North America. The umbrella term “aridlands” includes Sonoran and Mojave deserts and desertscrub, desert shrublands and scrublands, interior chaparral shrublands, and desert washes, as well as riparian areas. In addition to supporting its own unique suite of birds, many grassland breeding birds from the northern Great Plains winter in the aridlands habitat of the Sonoran Joint Venture, particularly in agricultural areas. Major threats in this ecosystem include water management and use, unsustainable grazing, conversion to urban and suburban development, and climate change impacts such as ecosystem encroachment and drought.
Grasslands
Grasslands are considered one of North America’s most endangered ecosystems. In the SJV region, Chihuahuan and Sonoran semidesert grasslands and southern California grasslands provide important habitat to breeding, wintering, and migrating birds throughout the year. SJV grasslands are vital wintering and migratory stopover habitat for breeding birds from the Northern Great Plains, as well as breeding habitat for resident species. Conversion to agriculture and rangeland, encroachment by woody shrubs and trees, and development, along with ecosystem shifts driven by issues like drought and changes in natural fire regimes all pose serious threats to grasslands in the SJV region.
Forests
Forests in the SJV region are diverse and wide-spread, including mixed conifer forest, pine forest, Madrean pine-oak woodland, pinyon-juniper woodland, and tropical deciduous forest. Threats to this ecosystem include changes in fire regimes, unsustainable logging and wood harvesting, conversion to housing and residential areas, unsustainable grazing, and climate change impacts such as ecosystem encroachment and drought.
Islands
The SJV region includes many unique island systems in the Gulf of California and along the Pacific coast of California, and the Baja California peninsula. These islands are important migration corridors, as well as nesting sites for seabirds and other species. Threats include introduced non-native species, human disturbance, unsustainable fishing practices, and pollution.
Coastal Wetlands
Coastal wetlands include sandy beaches, mangroves, mudflats, and estuaries, which provide habitat to shorebirds, waterfowl, waterbirds, and a variety of landbird species. In addition to its importance to birds, this ecosystem serves as a nursery for many fish, mollusks, and other species, and supports livelihoods for human coastal communities. Coastal wetlands also play a critical role in providing clean water and protecting coastal communities from flood events. Threats include dredging, habitat destruction and alteration from coastal urban, agricultural, aquacultural, and tourism development, and recreation.
Riparian Systems and Freshwater Wetlands
Riparian systems occur throughout priority ecosystems at all elevations in the Sonoran Joint Venture. They include perennial and intermittent streams, rivers, and adjacent floodplains, riparian shrublands, xeric washes, and microphyll woodlands. Mesquite bosque woodlands, generally located adjacent to river systems, are also considered part of this ecosystem. Riparian systems are important corridors, connecting different habitats and creating migratory pathways for birds and other wildlife. Scattered seeps, ciénegas, backwaters, and marshes also occur along minor and major rivers in the region. Major threats to these ecosystems include groundwater pumping, water diversion, flood control, exotic and invasive species, conversion to agriculture, unsustainable grazing, unsustainable recreation, wood extraction, fire, and conversion to suburban/urban development.