Dangling off the horn of Africa and five hundredten kilometers off the south coast of Yemen sits one of the world’s best kept secrets, the island of Socotra. Up until the installation of a landing strip in the last decade, the island remained virtually disconnected from the outside world. The only way that it could be reached was by crossing the Arabian sea by boat, which due to heavy winds is impossible for over half the year. Up until very recently, its beauty was only allowed to be witnessed by those involved in research projects, remaining unknown to most of the world. Now, its allure is slowly becoming more and more well-known to visitors of Yemen.

Many feel that being on the island is like taking a trip back in time, when Earth’s lands took on different forms and its peoples were ignorant of the world around them. Its inhabitants have been there for at least a few thousand years and to this day still speak Himiri, an ancient Semitic language that predates Arabic. They occupy all the diverse landscapes of the island, residing in tiny villages made up of stone huts in hidden corners of barren, volcaniclike expanses, and dwelling in caves in the mountain heights and deep wadis.

The island’s 250-300 endemic plant species make the place especially unique- -a veritable botanist’s paradise. Along the coast and in the lowlands, squat, fat little trees topped with pink flowers dot the hillsides. Some of the valleys conceal green, humid, semi-forests, trickling with streams, rivers, and waterfalls that are home to various species of endemic crabs and amphibians. But perhaps the most awe-inspiring sight of all is in the highlands, where the otherwise vacant landscape is covered with the endemic dragon blood trees, towering over vast gorges, with their branches pointing up to the sky in the shape of inverted umbrellas. Their blood-red sap is harvested by the locals for its olibanum medicinal properties as well as for a dye for wood and pottery.

With Socotra starting to take the stage as one of Yemen’s greatest natural wonders, more attention is being focused on all of Yemen’s other 183 islands that are located in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean. Of these islands, only seven are inhabited: Al-Fashat, Biklam, Kamaran, and Mayun in the Red Sea and Socotra, Abdul-Quri, and Safhan in the Arabian Sea. The rest of them serve as stop-overs for Yemeni fishermen, nesting places for birds, or are completely empty altogether.

Some of these islands have played a significant role in Yemen’s history, as they hold important strategic positions. Kamaran, the largest and most inhabited island in the Red Sea, is said to be one of the most strategic islands in the Arab world because of its proximity to the strait of Bab Al-Mandab, which leads into the sea. Over the past eight hundred years this island has changed hands between the “Loran Shah,” the Portugese invaders, the Mamaluk of Egypt, the Egyptian Turks, the Ottoman Turks, and finally the British colonists from 1850 to 1967. Socotra, being the only island of considerable size at the entrance to the Gulf of Aden, served as an entry point to the area for the European colonists in the 16th century when it was occupied by the Portugese, and fell under British rule from 1876 to 1967.

Today, the islands provide Yemen with a wealth of fish and have been supporting the industry for ages. The islands in the Red Sea are also an important source for minerals such as gypsum, sulfur, potassium, as well as the salt domes and the limestone that overlays them. The water that surround these islands also contain significant amounts of iron, magnesium, copper, nickel, lead, zinc, and even small amounts of gold.

Despite their resources and natural beauty, the inhabitants of the Yemeni islands suffer from serious poverty. Socotra is the poorest part of Yemen, to the extent that most people living on the island’s interior mostly subsist on a diet of rice and goat’s milk, live far from any source of electricity, and don’t have proper access to medical support. That is why the government’s new interest in the islands provides a glimmer of hope to the island dwellers, and it’s not only Yemen that is becoming more interested in the islands. In early December the First International Conference of Investment Opportunities in the Yemeni Islands convened in Sana’a, with about 340 attendants representing local, Arab, and international companies. Much of the conference focused on the islands potential for tourism investment, but concerned organizations also stressed the need for saving the environment of the islands and providing basic services to their inhabitants.

The Yemeni Islands Development Authority (YIDA) has been the spearhead of tourism promotion for Yemen’s islands. They have advertised their diversity of landscapes on the islands, which vary from mountains to lowlands and sandy plains. Their most attractive aspects, though, are their well-preserved and unexplored coral reefs, which contain 130 species of coral and an array of colorful fish and other sea creatures.

Fortunately, some organizations are also concerned with the type of development that is being discussed regarding Yemen’s islands, especially Socotra. In 2002, the Socotra Archipelago Conservation and Development Program (SCDP) was formed within the Ministry of Planning and Development, with support by the UNDP and several European and Middle Eastern governments, to oversee the implementation of all conservation and development initiatives of the government of Yemen and international donors. They have created a comprehensive Biodiversity Zoning Plan, which aims to integrate the developmental needs of Socotra’s population with environmental protection and sustainable use of natural resources. Many of the islands endemic species are under pressure, and careless development combined with the lack of protection of these species could eventually lead to their extinction.

This potential for ecological catastrophe has created an area of contention for the two agencies. According to Abdul-Rahman Al-Eryani, the National Program Manager of the SCDP, the Island Authority’s effort to promote the islands in the Red Sea has so far been overly ambitious. “They [the islands] are barren and under very severe climatic conditions of heat and wind, so the opportunities for investment are, in reality, quite limited. The information that they are providing investors is misleading, and the investors will eventually find out. There will be a backlash, and no one will be interested in real investment,” he warned.

Socotra, the only protected archipelago in Yemen, has an extensive plan for sustainable development and conservation, but is in danger of suffering from the over enthusiasm for quick tourist development. There are currently 69 projects laid out by the SCDP, but they are at a near deadlock due to lack of funding. Furthermore, the Yemeni government hasn’t been respecting the organization’s zoning plans and has already engaged in construction that is in contradiction of them.

What could prove the largest disaster is the privatization of development and tourism operations. Socotra is currently under the nose of a group of Saudi investors that are currently researching the feasibility of building a large-scale tourist resort on the island and have been trying to sidestep the SCDP. According to Al-Eryani, “What they are planning is going to be a disaster for the island because they are thinking along the lines of the Canary Islands, with mass tourism, and everything brought from the outside with no benefit to the local communities.” He also stressed that “we [SCDP] don’t mind proper investment, provided that they stick to the zoning plan and master plan of the island.” The possibilities of the future of the Yemeni islands are at a crucial point right now. They hold the potential to bring income to the country and the opportunity to share their beauty with the outside world. The prospects of quick solutions might be tempting, but without cautious planning and concern for their unique environments and local cultures, the consequences could mean the end to these hidden wonders.