What does SDCP stand for?

The Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan was the precursor to the current broader conversation on sustainability.

Coverage includes an overview of the debates over the cultural, economic, and environmental value of grazing on public lands; the 1998 Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan and how language used by different actors points to different assumptions about conservation and land use; and analysis of language use from private interviews with ranchers, environmentalists, and government agents/advisors, which examines how they talk about the land and ecological relationships, and about themselves and others.

More than 400 experts in various disciplines, 80 members of a steering committee, and 14 government agencies collaborated to gather scientific data that led to the adoption of the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan as part of Pima County's land use plan in 2001.

One of the unique aspects of the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan is that is moves beyond ESA planning by consolidating previously fragmented planning elements within the county.