The Chihuahuan Desert is North America's largest desert, extending on both sides of the US-Mexican border. The legendary rivers, the Rio Grande or Rio Bravo crosses the desert, and rugged mountains define the basin and range landscape. Vast grasslands grace the valley floors and host the southern most species associated with the American Prairies. This dry highland with its harsh climate is famous for an enormous variety of yucca and cacti and is thought to be the world's most biologically rich desert. Of the 3500 plant species growing in the desert, a thousand are endemic- found no where else on the planet. In the mountain regions you find legendary animals like Jaguar (Felis onca), Bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis), Black bear (Ursus americanus), and zone-tailed hawk (Buteo albonotatus).


Dependent on snowpack in its US headwaters, the Rio Grande now supplies less water to famers and cities due to erratic snowfall levels in recent years. The headwaters of the Rio Conchos, the river's largest tributary, has experienced drought in the past decades. The Rio Grande/Rio Bravo has become so depleted that in some drought years it dries out before it reaches the sea. The Chihuahuan Desert has already suffered from intensive farming, overgrazing, and massive depletion of ground and river water for settlements. Shifts in rainfall patterns and snowpack levels have caused uncertainty in water deliveries and have led to increases in groundwater pumping.


Water management is key for this region. WWF is working with regional and local partners to devise water security strategies for communities, farmers and the environment.

WWF assisted farmers with implementing water-saving irrigation techniques by providing water meters and conducting a study on the use of alternate furrow irrigation with cotton farmers.

WWF secured larger protected areas to encompass entire watersheds, and implemented best management practices with communities in the forested headwaters.