Sharjah24 – AFP: Centuries-old umbrella-shaped dragon's blood trees line the rugged peaks of Yemen's Socotra -- a flagship symbol of the Indian Ocean archipelago's extraordinary biodiversity, but also a bleak warning of environmental crisis.
Forests of these ancient trees are being decimated by increasingly intense storms, while replacement saplings are gobbled by proliferating goat herds, leaving the fragile biological hotspot vulnerable to desertification.
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.
Naming it a World Heritage site in 2008, UNESCO described the main island as one of the world's "most biodiversity rich and distinct". It has also been dubbed the "Galapagos of the Indian Ocean".
But 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.
- 'Running out of time' –
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.
"It remains a treasure trove of biodiversity," said Van Damme, chair of the Friends of Socotra support group. "But we may soon be running out of time to protect Socotra's most iconic flagship species."
Each lost tree drives a reduction in the hydrological cycle on which all life depends.
Islanders say trees have been battered by storms more ferocious than anyone remembers.
At 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.
Other local species are just as hard hit by storms and overgrazing, including the 10 endemic species of frankincense tree.
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