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.
