Climate change drives ancient Socotra dragon’s blood tree to brink of extinction

John Yang:

The Yemeni island of Socotra sits in the Indian Ocean between the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa. It's one of the most biodiverse places on Earth, sometimes called the Galapagos of the Indian Ocean.

More than a third of the plant species on the island doesn't exist anywhere else on Earth. That includes a type of dragon's blood tree. Some of them are centuries old, but now they're struggling to survive in the face of intensifying threats from climate change.

Associated Press Oceans and climate correspondent Annika Hammerschlag went to Socotra for a firsthand look. Annika, first of all, this island, it's isolated. Not many people go there. So tell us what this island is like.

Annika Hammerschlag, Associated Press:

It just looks like nowhere else I'd ever been. There's very little infrastructure on the island and visitors camp their way across it, which I really loved. And many of the plants look totally surreal, like the bottle trees that jut out of the side of cliffs and the frankincense trees that have these wild, gnarled limbs. And then of course, you have the dragon's blood trees.

On top of all that, you just get these incredible varied landscapes. There's a network of caves that snake through the island for several miles there. There's massive dunes that drop right into the ocean. And my favorite place was the Wadis, which have these natural freshwater pools. I swam in one that was longer than an Olympic pool. And it had this steep canyon running beneath it. It was the highlight of the trip.

John Yang:

And you say that these plants have distinctive looks. The dragon's blood tree has a pretty distinctive look.

Annika Hammerschlag:

Yeah. And it's really the emblem of Socotra. It's on the currency. It's what draws tourists into the island. And it just looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. It has this umbrella shaped canopy, and when you cut the bark, it bleeds a red SAP, which is where it gets its name from.

And that resin has been used for centuries for things like cosmetics and medicines and dyes. The trees also play a crucial role in the ecosystem. The canopy captures moisture from fog and channels it into the soil, which helps other plants survive. And that's becoming increasingly important as rains there become less predictable with climate change.

John Yang:

And how threatened is it, and where are the threats coming from?

Annika Hammerschlag:

So cyclones in the Arabian Sea have become increasingly intense and frequent, and Socotra has been hit repeatedly over the last decade with the most intense cyclones on record. And that's uprooted thousands of these dragon splashes trees, some of which were over 500 years old.

Climate models all over the world forecast that this trend will continue, especially as greenhouse gas emissions rise. To make matters worse, the trees grow incredibly slowly, at just one inch per year. There's invasive goats all over the island who feed on dragon's blood saplings before they have a chance to grow back.

And then there's the political instability. Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world. It's been mired in conflict for years, both the civil war and now regional tensions. So there's very little capacity to support conservation. One security analyst I spoke with put it really well. He said, Yemen has 99 problems right now. Addressing climate issues would be a luxury.

John Yang:

And what is being done or what can be done to try to save this tree?

Annika Hammerschlag:

It was really heartwarming to see how the locals are so determined to protect what they have, even with so few resources. I spent some time with one family, the Kaibanis, who run their own dragon's blood tree nursery. They've built simple enclosures out of wood and wire to keep out goats, but the wind and the rain often break them down, so they're constantly having to rebuild.

For them, the work is deeply personal. They see the trees as part of their family. And one of the Kabanis, I spent some time with Saina. She told me that watching them die is like losing one of your babies.

John Yang:

If this tree goes extinct, what's lost? What goes with it?

Annika Hammerschlag:

The dragon's blood tree helps keep a lot of other species alive. So without them, the island would become even more arid and it could lose a lot of its unique biodiversity. And beyond that, the trees are central to the island's identity and economy. So if the trees disappear, so could the tourism many locals depend on. It would be devastating, not just symbolically, but for the entire ecosystem.

John Yang:

Annika Hammerschlag of the Associated Press, thank you very much.

Annika Hammerschlag:

Thank you for having me.