Saving Socotra's Dragon Blood Trees

Founded in 2022 by French and Socotri citizens, this binational association works in the Firmihin dragon-tree forest and the Dixam and Homhil plateaus of Yemen's Socotra archipelago, where more than half of the world's remaining Dracaena cinnabari population survives. Between 2022 and early 2025 the association established four community-run dragon-tree nurseries -- including one at the school in Dixam -- to regenerate seedlings threatened by overgrazing and intensifying cyclones, while running biodiversity workshops in island schools. In partnership with the local Maithan Association, it also installs migratory beehives in the dragon-tree forest to aid pollination and give Bedouin communities a sustainable honey income, and is equipping new nurseries with pipelines that carry irrigation and drinking water to isolated villages. The team represented Socotra's conservation case at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi in October 2025.