Desert environments remain largely neglected by the society and their potential to provide benefits to people remain understudied. Hotspots of cultural ecosystem services have been identified in some deserts; yet, knowing which countries need to strengthen efforts to satisfy people's demand for those services is timely needed. Here, we show the performance of countries within the Earth's largest warm region – the Sahara-Sahel – in managing cultural ecosystem services. Using the most-advanced decision-support tools and updated databases on biodiversity features and constrains to ecosystem services and on socioeconomic indicators, we identified national priorities for cultural services management. We also identified countries that are missing opportunities for local sustainable development. About 34% of Sahara-Sahel is prioritized for cultural ecosystem services, particularly in the main mountains and waterbodies of the region and along the Western and Eastern coastal limits. Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Senegal, and Tunisia are performing better in managing their cultural services given the availability of such services in their territories. Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, and South Sudan need to urgently improve their ease of mobility, governance, safety, socioeconomic and health systems to foster ecosystem services demand. Cameroon, Eritrea, and Senegal are receiving far less tourists than what their ecosystems can handle and need to improve their local conditions for better marketing international tourists able to economically contribute to sustainable development through ecotourism programs. The approach developed here serves as a framework for conserving the last world wild ecosystems and is replicable to other contexts where regional planning for ecosystem management is compulsory.

沙漠环境在很大程度上仍被社会所忽视，其为人民带来利益的潜力仍未得到充分研究。在一些沙漠中已经确定了文化生态系统服务的热点；然而，及时了解哪些国家需要加强努力来满足人们对这些服务的需求。在这里，我们展示了地球上最大的温暖地区内的国家（撒哈拉—萨​​赫勒地区）在管理文化生态系统服务方面的表现。我们使用最先进的决策支持工具和有关生物多样性特征，生态系统服务约束和社会经济指标的最新数据库，确定了文化服务管理的国家优先事项。我们还确定了缺少地方可持续发展机会的国家。撒哈拉-萨赫勒地区约有34％的地区优先提供文化生态系统服务，特别是在该地区的主要山脉和水域以及西部和东部沿海地区。鉴于阿尔及利亚，埃及，利比亚，摩洛哥，塞内加尔和突尼斯的文化服务在本国领土上可获得，因此在管理其文化服务方面表现更好。布基纳法索，喀麦隆，乍得，埃及，利比亚，马里，尼日尔，尼日利亚，苏丹和南苏丹需要紧急改善其流动性，治理，安全，社会经济和卫生系统的便利性，以促进生态系统服务需求。喀麦隆，厄立特里亚，塞内加尔和塞内加尔接待的游客远远少于其生态系统所能承受的，因此需要改善当地条件以更好地营销国际游客，这些游客能够通过生态旅游计划为经济的可持续发展做出贡献。这里开发的方法可作为保护最近世界野生生态系统的框架，并且可以复制到其他必须进行生态系统管理区域规划的环境中。