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Japan Today
24-05-2025
- Japan Today
These trees exist in only one place on Earth. Now climate change and goats threaten their survival
A dragon blood's tree overlooks a natural infinity pool within Homhil Protected Area on the Yemeni island of Socotra on Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag) By ANNIKA HAMMERSCHLAG On a windswept plateau high above the Arabian Sea, Sena Keybani cradles a sapling that barely reaches her ankle. The young plant, protected by a makeshift fence of wood and wire, is a kind of dragon's blood tree — a species found only on the Yemeni island of Socotra that is now struggling to survive intensifying threats from climate change. 'Seeing the trees die, it's like losing one of your babies,' said Keybani, whose family runs a nursery dedicated to preserving the species. Known for their mushroom-shaped canopies and the blood-red sap that courses through their wood, the trees once stood in great numbers. But increasingly severe cyclones, grazing by invasive goats, and persistent turmoil in Yemen — which is one of the world's poorest countries and beset by a decade-long civil war — have pushed the species, and the unique ecosystem it supports, toward collapse. Often compared to the Galapagos Islands, Socotra floats in splendid isolation some 240 kilometers (150 miles) off the Horn of Africa. Its biological riches — including 825 plant species, of which more than a third exist nowhere else on Earth — have earned it UNESCO World Heritage status. Among them are bottle trees, whose swollen trunks jut from rock like sculptures, and frankincense, their gnarled limbs twisting skywards. But it's the dragon's blood tree that has long captured imaginations, its otherworldly form seeming to belong more to the pages of Dr. Seuss than to any terrestrial forest. The island receives about 5,000 tourists annually, many drawn by the surreal sight of the dragon's blood forests. Visitors are required to hire local guides and stay in campsites run by Socotran families to ensure tourist dollars are distributed locally. If the trees were to disappear, the industry that sustains many islanders could vanish with them. 'With the income we receive from tourism, we live better than those on the mainland,' said Mubarak Kopi, Socotra's head of tourism. But the tree is more than a botanical curiosity: It's a pillar of Socotra's ecosystem. The umbrella-like canopies capture fog and rain, which they channel into the soil below, allowing neighboring plants to thrive in the arid climate. 'When you lose the trees, you lose everything — the soil, the water, the entire ecosystem,' said Kay Van Damme, a Belgian conservation biologist who has worked on Socotra since 1999. Without intervention, scientists like Van Damme warn these trees could disappear within a few centuries — and with them many other species. 'We've succeeded, as humans, to destroy huge amounts of nature on most of the world's islands,' he said. 'Socotra is a place where we can actually really do something. But if we don't, this one is on us.' Across the rugged expanse of Socotra's Firmihin plateau, the largest remaining dragon's blood forest unfolds against the backdrop of jagged mountains. Thousands of wide canopies balance atop slender trunks. Socotra starlings dart among the dense crowns while Egyptian vultures bank against the relentless gusts. Below, goats weave through the rocky undergrowth. The frequency of severe cyclones has increased dramatically across the Arabian Sea in recent decades, according to a 2017 study in the journal Nature Climate Change, and Socotra's dragon's blood trees are paying the price. In 2015, a devastating one-two punch of cyclones — unprecedented in their intensity — tore across the island. Centuries-old specimens, some over 500 years old, which had weathered countless previous storms, were uprooted by the thousands. The destruction continued in 2018 with yet another cyclone. As greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, so too will the intensity of the storms, warned Hiroyuki Murakami, a climate scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the study's lead author. 'Climate models all over the world robustly project more favorable conditions for tropical cyclones.' But storms aren't the only threat. Unlike pine or oak trees, which grow 60 to 90 centimeters (25 to 35 inches) per year, dragon's blood trees creep along at just 2 to 3 centimeters (about 1 inch) annually. By the time they reach maturity, many have already succumbed to an insidious danger: goats. An invasive species on Socotra, free-roaming goats devour saplings before they have a chance to grow. Outside of hard-to-reach cliffs, the only place young dragon's blood trees can survive is within protected nurseries. 'The majority of forests that have been surveyed are what we call over-mature — there are no young trees, there are no seedlings,' said Alan Forrest, a biodiversity scientist at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh's Centre for Middle Eastern Plants. 'So you've got old trees coming down and dying, and there's not a lot of regeneration going on.' Keybani's family's nursery is one of several critical enclosures that keep out goats and allow saplings to grow undisturbed. 'Within those nurseries and enclosures, the reproduction and age structure of the vegetation is much better,' Forrest said. 'And therefore, it will be more resilient to climate change.' But such conservation efforts are complicated by Yemen's stalemated civil war. As the Saudi Arabia-backed, internationally recognized government battles Houthi rebels — a Shiite group backed by Iran — the conflict has spilled beyond the country's borders. Houthi attacks on Israel and commercial shipping in the Red Sea have drawn retaliation from Israeli and Western forces, further destabilizing the region. 'The Yemeni government has 99 problems right now,' said Abdulrahman Al-Eryani, an advisor with Gulf State Analytics, a Washington-based risk consulting firm. 'Policymakers are focused on stabilizing the country and ensuring essential services like electricity and water remain functional. Addressing climate issues would be a luxury.' With little national support, conservation efforts are left largely up to Socotrans. But local resources are scarce, said Sami Mubarak, an ecotourism guide on the island. Mubarak gestures toward the Keybani family nursery's slanting fence posts, strung together with flimsy wire. The enclosures only last a few years before the wind and rain break them down. Funding for sturdier nurseries with cement fence posts would go a long way, he said. 'Right now, there are only a few small environmental projects — it's not enough,' he said. 'We need the local authority and national government of Yemen to make conservation a priority.' © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Japan Today
07-05-2025
- Science
- Japan Today
As Trump pares back ocean protections, California weighs expanding them
By ANNIKA HAMMERSCHLAG Strands of kelp glow in the dim morning light off California's Channel Islands as fish and sea lions weave through the golden fronds. It's a scene of remarkable abundance — the result of more than two decades of protection in one of the state's oldest marine reserves. But farther out in the Pacific, life in the vast Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument faces a very different future. The Trump administration has moved to reopen 500,000 square miles (about 1.3 million square kilometers) of previously protected waters there to commercial fishing, in a dramatic rollback of federal ocean protections. California, meanwhile, may be headed in the opposite direction. As it undertakes its first 10-year review of its marine protected area network, state officials, scientists, tribal leaders and environmental advocates are pushing not just to maintain protections but to expand them. 'These areas are like our underwater Yellowstone,' said Douglas McCauley, director of the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara, speaking aboard a dive boat heading to the Channel Islands. 'It's important to protect that biological heritage, but it also creates an extremely lucrative tourism industry. People want to go see all that nature and wildlife in action.' The state's marine protected areas have become magnets for scuba divers and snorkelers drawn by their rich life. Over time, these reserves allow fish populations to rebound and spill over into nearby waters – a long-term investment with large returns for fishermen, as McCauley sees it. Launched in 2003, the network now spans 124 distinct sections along the coast. Some areas are 'no-take' zones where all fishing is prohibited, while others allow limited use. The network covers roughly 16% of state waters, with proposed expansions that would add 2%. The goal, under the 1999 Marine Life Protection Act, was to create a science-based system to rebuild ecosystems after decades of overfishing and habitat loss. The Channel Islands were among the first sites established. About 20% of the waters surrounding the eight-island chain are now fully protected. But expansion proposals have sparked debate among fishermen. Blake Hermann, a fourth-generation commercial fisherman from Ventura County, grew up fishing around the Channel Islands, where he harpoons swordfish by hand. He supports keeping much of the marine protected network intact, but he argues that some closures go too far and has petitioned the state to allow limited fishing in three no-take zones around the islands. Protected areas can help nearshore species like sea bass and lobster recover, Hermann said, but offer little benefit to wide-ranging ocean-goers like swordfish and tuna that may pass only briefly through a protected zone during migration. He questions whether it makes sense to restrict selective, low-impact fishing methods in places where these migratory species are only temporary visitors and will likely be caught when they move into unrestricted waters. 'These islands are the best thing on the planet,' Hermann said. 'We can still protect what makes sense to protect in the right areas, but you can also still give some access back too.' Others warn that reopening any part of the protected network could set a troubling precedent, especially as climate change disrupts ocean ecosystems. 'When we protect the oceans, we're really protecting ourselves,' said Sandy Aylesworth, director of the Pacific Initiative for the Natural Resources Defense Council. 'If the additional 2% is added, it will better prepare California's ocean for future stressors like climate change and new industrial uses of the ocean. So I see it as being a real benefit to all of the ocean users in California — including recreational and commercial fishermen.' Final decisions from the review are expected early next year. 'Marine protected areas are probably the most controversial thing that we work on, because you're essentially telling a group of individuals that they can't do what they've historically done in an area,' said Craig Shuman, marine region manager at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Shuman said the fishing community has become particularly vocal in response to petitions to expand the MPA network. Many aren't asking for more access, he said, just for existing opportunities not to be taken away. 'They're asking, 'If you take all the places we can fish, where do we go?'' he said. 'That's the challenge: how to find the right balance between protection and access, especially in a state like California where we already have very strong fisheries management laws.' Overall, he said, the data shows the network is working. 'It's not consistent — each MPA is a little bit different — but more often than not, we're seeing the MPAs are working to achieve the goals of the Act.' The president's executive order lifted fishing restrictions in waters between 50 and 200 nautical miles around a remote Pacific island chain — areas first protected by President George W. Bush in 2009 and expanded by President Barack Obama in 2014. Supporters said doing so would boost commercial fishing interests in Hawaii and American Samoa. Conservationists fear the impacts from fishing in an area that's home to coral reefs, sea turtles, whales and thousands of other species. 'It makes it even more critical here at the state level that there is this expansion of protections to really balance out some of those rollbacks,' said Molly Morse, senior manager at the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory. Back on the boat, still within the protected waters off Anacapa Island, a shimmering school of sardines and anchovies draws a frenzy of seabirds and dolphins. Humpback whales surge from the depths, mouths agape, swallowing fish by the gallon. Along the border of the protected area, a sport fishing boat drops its lines as a container ship rumbles past in the distance. 'We've got the largest port in the United States. We've got offshore oil and gas. We've got fishing boats coming and going,' McCauley said. 'But still, in the middle of all that, we still have this wildness — a place where all the stakeholders who want value out of the ocean can find it.' © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
