![]() ![]() ![]() "Waves in the last storms smashed the windows of our home," the 25-year-old said, describing how his family had sheltered terrified in caves for days. They have built a new village 10 minutes' walk from the sea. Islanders are already feeling the impact of changing weather patterns.Ībdullah Ahmed, from a small fishing village near Shuab, a cluster of solidly built coral-stone homes, said the 40 residents were threatened both by extreme high seas and landslides. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) warns that Socotra is under "high threat", and the "deteriorating" situation will be "accelerated by climate change". "If the trend continues, future generations might be able to visit a Socotran frankincense tree only in a botanical garden, accompanied by a little plaque saying 'extinct in the wild'", Van Damme added. Landslide scars caused by vegetation loss are now a common sight. "The immune system of Socotra is now compromised," he said, but added, "there is still hope." One study found the number of frankincense trees had plummeted by 78 percent in this area between 19. ![]() Without replanting efforts, the forest "will be gone in only a few decades", Van Damme said. Gales have torn through nearly a third of the trees in the Homhil forest over the past decade. Other local species are just as hard hit by storms and overgrazing, including the 10 endemic species of frankincense tree. Islanders say trees have been battered by storms more ferocious than anyone remembers.Īt Diksam, on the high plateau surrounding the Hagher mountains, running like a spine along the 130-kilometre (80-mile) island and 1,500 metres (4,900 feet) high, dead trees lie scattered like bowling ball pins. "But we may soon be running out of time to protect Socotra's most iconic flagship species."Įach lost tree drives a reduction in the hydrological cycle on which all life depends. "It remains a treasure trove of biodiversity," said Van Damme, chair of the Friends of Socotra support group. The shrinking forests are a canary in the mine for Socotra's environmental challenges, said Belgian biologist Kay Van Damme, from the University of Ghent. "If nothing is done, it will not take long before all are gone," he said. The trees take nearly half a century before they reproduce, he explained. "Goats eat the seedlings, so young trees are only found on cliff faces in the most inaccessible places," said Ahmed. It has also been dubbed the "Galapagos of the Indian Ocean".Īhmed said islanders traditionally don't fell dragon's blood trees for firewood, both because they perpetuate regular rainfall and because its blood-red sap is medicinal.īut scientists and islanders warn that the trees will largely die out within decades, buckling under pressure from global warming driving cyclones, as well as invasive species and overgrazing. Naming it a World Heritage site in 2008, UNESCO described the main island as one of the world's "most biodiversity rich and distinct". Lying in turquoise seas between Arabia and Africa some 350 kilometres (215 miles) south of Yemen's coast, Socotra is home to over 50,000 people and has remained relatively untouched by the bloodletting of the civil war raging on the mainland. ![]()
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