Conservation of the Most Diverse Oasis of the World and the Future of Our Path in the Deserts: Lessons from Cuatro Ciénegas to the World

Abstract

Water is a gift of life in a desert, but in an oasis, it is also a curse, given human ambition to use all the available freshwater, even if it is a scarce resource. The environmental problems of Cuatro Ciénegas Basin (CCB hereafter) started with the building of three canals to export the water toward the east of CCB. The first canal is called “Saca Salada” and was built in 1902. This canal was widened and even made deeper in the 1970s. The canals of “Santa Tecla” and “La Becerra” drain the water out of the CCB since ca. 1966. Before the construction of these canals, wheat, vineyards, and pecan trees were productive options, along with farming goats, cows, and horses in the valley. In 1992 Dr. W. Minckley reported a town with no more vineyards, no more wheat and flour production, dying pecan trees, and drying wetlands, while alfalfa fields were everywhere within CCB and in the neighboring valleys. The loss of water was a tragedy that worsened despite CCB having being declared a protected area in 1994. For instance, between 2002 and 2006, the main lagoon of the Churince system (Churince lagoon), a large evaporating lagoon that used to measure 2 km wide, dried up and remains dry. We have been working for the last two decades, along with local kindergarten to high school students and teachers, at understanding CCB’s extraordinary biodiversity and at trying to preserve the wetland from dying. The CCB canals must be permanently closed so that the wetland begins to recharge. Our hope is that CCB becomes a lesson, a survival lesson for México and the world.