Biosphere ReservePatrimonio Mundial UNESCOReserva de la Biosfera

Socotra

Yemen · Middle East (Arabian Sea)

Middle East (Arabian Sea)Declared in 20033,796 km²

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Nicknamed the Galápagos of the Indian Ocean; a third of its plants exist nowhere else on the planet

Area

3,796 km²

Declared in

2003

Region

Middle East (Arabian Sea)

Climate

Árido / desértico, Templado, Montañoso

Ocean World Heritage Biosphere Reserve

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Area: 3,796 km²

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Nicknamed the Galápagos of the Indian Ocean; a third of its plants exist nowhere else on the planet

Made a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 2003 and a World Heritage Site in 2008, the remote Yemeni island of Socotra has been cut off from the African and Asian mainlands for some 6-7 million years, an evolutionary isolation that has earned it the nickname of the Galápagos of the Indian Ocean: close to a third of its plant species, the iconic dragon's blood tree among them with its upturned-umbrella crown, exist nowhere else on the planet. The island has stayed largely clear of the armed conflict that has torn mainland Yemen apart since 2015, though its tourism and its connections have suffered all the same from regional instability and from recent extreme weather.