Our Community

Located in southwestern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico, the Sonoran Desert encompasses 10,000 square miles of the hottest, most fragile desert ecosystem in North America. With less than nine inches of rain per year and temperatures that occasionally hit 115 degrees in the summer, the Sonoran Desert is uniquely the home of the saguaro and organ pipe cactus and the endangered Sonoran pronghorn.

Bounded by a northerly arc that sweeps roughly through Yuma, Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona, this sparsely populated desert encompasses the Tohono O’odham Nation, Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, and the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range. The southern Sonoran Desert, in Mexico, includes the threatened upper Gulf of California and Colorado River delta, as well as the United Nations’ World Heritage Site of the Pinacate Biosphere Reserve, a fragile cluster of volcanic craters abutting mountainous sand dunes.

The human dimensions of this tri-nation area present a complex set of economic and environmental issues, and the International Sonoran Desert Alliance was formed out of the conviction that inclusion of the diverse populations offers the most desirable way of solving the problems presented by the border’s demarcation. Our organization is headquartered in the community of Ajo, Arizona, which represents the geographic heart of the Sonoran Desert. Ajo is a historic mining town and a remote, rural Colonia near the US/Mexico border in Southern Arizona. Since mining operations shut down in the mid-1980-s, Ajo has been mired in perpetual recession resulting in 34% of the population at or below poverty level and a 25% unemployment rate. With such challenging economic circumstances, Ajo is desperate for a fresh base industry and expanded opportunity. Toward this end, the International Sonoran Desert Alliance has been focused on creative reuse and revitalization of the historic town center for the past 15+ years.