VisualGPS Creative Trends Sustainability Socotra's Singular And Fragile Ecosystem

Located off the coast of Yemen, Socotra is home to hundreds of species found nowhere else on earth, including the surreal dragon blood trees. Getty Images Staff Photographer Carl Court recently visited this biodiversity hotspot to photograph its unique flora and show the environmental forces that place these singular plants increasingly at risk.

Text and images by Carl Court

Socotra is a Yemeni island lying 380 kilometres off the country’s mainland, which remains in a stalemated civil war between the Houthi rebel group and the country's internationally recognized government. The island’s relative isolation has mitigated the impact of the 12‑year conflict and rendered it safe enough to attract small numbers of foreign tourists. Nevertheless, there are still extensive restrictions on visitors and it’s impossible to just hop on a plane and travel independently. Visits must be arranged by a local tour agency. When I visited the island for the first time in October, shortly after the end of the monsoon season, I enlisted a tour company months in advance and they arranged the trip and booked me onto one of the two weekly flights from Abu Dhabi, whose government wields considerable influence over Socotra.

On arrival, I was met by a driver and guide who would be with me for the duration of the seven‑night trip. We loaded into a 4x4 for the 2‑hour drive to our first stop, Arher beach, where huge sand dunes pushed up against enormous cliffs towering over the pristine coastline. On the beach, ghost crab nests formed scores of conical mounds in the soft sand. At the cliffs, bats fluttered from the mouths of giant caves. I photographed the stunning sunset and returned to the camp for dinner and my bed in a tent on the beach. This awesome landscape was where I would spend the next two nights and was my first introduction to this unique isolated ecosystem known as the “Galapagos of the Indian Ocean.”

From Arher beach I hiked inland to Hoq cave, home to a vast number of mineral deposits known as speleothems and endemic troglobionts, species which live their whole lives in these caves. Outside, a native subspecies of bottle tree, Adenium socotranum, were dotted about at the foot of the cliffs. From there, we headed along the coast and up to the Diksam Plateau, home to the island’s biggest star: the dragon blood tree.

The primary goal of my trip was to capture the might and plight of this astonishing tree, which, like more than two hundred other species here, is found nowhere else on earth. This singular species faces a hazardous future, as intensifying storms in the region – including two powerful cyclones in 2015 – have toppled thousands of trees. Meanwhile, a population of invasive goats loves to feast on dragon blood saplings, hampering regeneration. Sadly, there was no shortage of damaged or dead trees to photograph. I spent days and nights capturing these trees in every available light, on land and from the sky. I also documented the work of a nursery where dragon blood tree saplings are grown safely away from the voracious goats. Local conservation groups aim to use these saplings to restore the landscape by replanting lost trees.

The Diksam Plateau was also home to other wildlife found nowhere else, including the Socotran chameleon and Socotran starling as well as lots of inquisitive Egyptian vultures. The landscape was dramatic, rugged and incredibly beautiful.

From the plateau we dropped back down to the coast where I wanted to illustrate the small but important fishing industry on the island. Fishermen using very basic techniques caught sizeable sharks and fish that were quickly taken to market in the island’s capital, Hadibu. Socotra’s economy, which remains constrained by Yemen’s ongoing turmoil, relies mainly on these fishermen and small‑scale agriculture. A nascent tourism industry brings only a few thousand visitors each year.

In Hadibu, where I concluded the trip, signs of this growing tourism industry were evident, as were the influences of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and mainland government. Despite Socotra’s geographic isolation, it was not immune to the region’s geopolitical and economic forces. Similarly, the fiercer storms produced by climate change mean that Socotra’s fragile ecosystem faces its own precarious future.