World Wildlife Fund

Join WWF’s Cathy Plume for an insider account of how WWF is conserving this place. Meet local people whose eco-businesses are the hope of this desert. Experience nighttime border crossings, a day on horseback and the culture of the Southwest. Learn what WWF and partners are doing to keep water flowing through the Rio Grande – while also meeting the needs of the five million people who call this desert home. 

Part 1: Arrival in Chihuahua | Part 2: Goals and Ghouls | Part 3: Thirsty Rivers | Part 4: Hermelinda's Story | Part 5: Señor Vallina's Vision | Part 6: Bighorn Sightings | Part 7: Starry Night | Part 8: Coffee and Congress | Part 9: Re-thinking Water | Part 10: Conserving Together

Part 2: Goals and Ghouls

The Chihuahua is named after the Mexican State of Chihuahua, where the earliest specimens of the breed were found. Chihuahua is also the state’s capitol city.
© WWF

I’m still on East Coast time so I’m up early.  After a hearty breakfast of huevos rancheros and nopales (cooked cactus, yum!), I do a quick spin around the plaza.  There’s a 15th century mission church just next door to the hotel and someone has dotted the town with larger-than-life Chihuahuas. One of the locals is more than happy to take my picture. Now it's off to the office. 

Once there, I meet colleagues from WWF-UK who also fund WWF’s work in region. We spend the morning reviewing program objectives here on the Mexico side. There are several new staff in the office and this an opportunity for them to learn more about the WWF network and how the work they are doing here in Chihuahua fits into WWF’s global conservation goals.  The discussion is rich and we run over time.  We opt to call out for a pizza lunch, though several of us quickly slip out to buy Tom Le Quesne’s wife a pair of cowboy boots. Tom is the freshwater policy officer for WWF-UK. There is a whole row of these shops right next to the hotel carrying boots in every style, color and leather you can imagine. The ranchero music playing in every store leaves no doubt that we are in Mexico.  

Photo of the WWF team on this trip. Back row, left to right: Mauricio de la Maza, Alejandro Espinosa (CEMEX), Rob Shore, Tom Le Quesne, Antonio Vallina (ranch owner), David Tickner, Ramiro Uranga (wildlife manager). Bottom row, left to right: Jenny Zapata, Haydee Para, Cathy Plume, Jurgen Hoth.
© WWF

We spend the rest of the afternoon with the team, honing in on program priorities to better understand what resources WWF can provide to achieve our objectives in the region.

Mauricio de la Maza, ecoregional director for WWF’s Chihuahuan Desert program, and his wife kindly invite us all out to dinner.  We end up at a historic colonial building near the hotel that’s been converted into a restaurant.  Called “Phantoms”, grey-powered employees walk hauntingly through the restaurant, occasionally pausing to run their fingers through patrons’ hair. It’s more than a bit creepy, and I’m reminded how this once cowboy town is now becoming a cultural center of over one million people.

Part 1: Arrival in Chihuahua | Part 2: Goals and Ghouls | Part 3: Thirsty Rivers | Part 4: Hermelinda's Story | Part 5: Señor Vallina's Vision | Part 6: Bighorn Sightings | Part 7: Starry Night | Part 8: Coffee and Congress | Part 9: Re-thinking Water | Part 10: Conserving Together