The iconic dragon blood tree (Dracaena cinnabari), found only on the island of Socotra. Here they grow in the tens of thousands (Firhmin forest is estimated to hold more than thirty thousand trees) and make the only forest of dragon blood trees on Socotra and in the world. They can live for 700 years or more!
This in itself makes it vulnerable, as there is no backup location! Due to decades of unchecked browsing by goats, the forest is in fact dying! You might think this forest looks healthy, but it is a forest of oldies. In human terms a forest of retired, old people!
This is a key species for many other plant species as the crown provides shade and protection from the sun, but it is also a collector of water from the fog that roams the hills in winter months when it is not raining. In a healthy forest there would be a healthy community of plants under every dragon blood tree, but the goats efficiently eat away at anything that is edible to them, including dragon blood tree seedlings – the very future of the forest!
In addition to the calamity of the goats, there is the climate change inflicting extreme weather events – from terribly powerful cyclones, to erratic seasonal rains and shorter duration of the rains and fewer days of fog. The combination of these factors put a heavy strain on the species, and the future of the forest is to date uncertain.
Currently there are two enclosures in Firhmin where you can see small seedlings planted by two projects, but only time will tell if they will thrive, as they are still dependent on watering and care by humans, as the climate change is making certain that the reliable weather patterns of the past no longer are here.
Furthermore there are several dragon blood tree nurseries on Socotra, and there you can see a very different state of the seedlings – at one nursery the seedlings are so large. The leaves are more than double the length of those in the wild, and what seemed like ample spacing between them at the beginning is now looking like an impenetrable thicket where the plants are killing each other.
Hopefully the regeneration of the Firhmin forest will progress to a point where thousands of seedlings are planted and surviving to a state where they will secure the future of the forest.
Find more about the status of the dragon blood tree here.
Find more information about conservation efforts and studies here.
Last updated on 4 March 2023
