On Sept. 29, Sky Island Alliance will join Saguaro National Park, Área de Protección de Flora y Fauna Bavispe, and other allies for a conservation summit to plan collaborations over the next year. Stay tuned for more updates from this Sister Parks program, and check out our brochure and kids activity book.
Nature knows no borders or political boundaries: mountains, forests, streams, and valleys exist independently. And wildlife live and move based on what they need to survive, despite arbitrary lines on maps.
In the Sky Islands, this is abundantly evident: the mountains that stretch across the horizon in northern Sonora and southern Arizona are all part of the same natural landscape. That’s why conserving these places requires building ties that go beyond borders: pairing protected natural areas, strengthening collaboration between the institutions that manage them, and connecting the people working for conservation on both sides of the border.
Sky Island Alliance is perfectly positioned in this regard, and we’re committed to helping maintain a connection between the Sister Parks of the Sky Islands. For years, we’ve worked with Mexico’s National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) and the U.S. National Park Service to address shared challenges, since what happens on one side of the border often influences the other.
And this year, we’re strengthening the collaboration, linking APFF Bavispe in Sonora with national parks and monuments in Arizona. Beyond establishing a relationship between the protected areas, our goal is to carry out collaborative projects that allow us to jointly address shared challenges, and to strengthen the protection of ecosystems, wildlife, and water, while connecting communities with their natural surroundings.
To help you get to know this program better, we’ll be sharing a series of videos, blogs, and other creative projects over the next year. To start, we have two to share:
- A Sister Parks brochure with an overview of the program and parks involved.
- A Sky Islands Junior Rangers Activity Book for kids.
We hope these materials help people better understand this special network of protected areas and grasp that, even though a border separates them, the nature we share gives us a reason to work together for their conservation.