UAE threatens to extract Socotra island from World Heritage List
SOCOTRA, June 12 (YPA) – The UAE has threatened to extract Yemen’s Socotra island from World Heritage List.
Nasser Abdel Rahman, a head of the Socotra Wildlife Society, confirmed, in a news statement on Monday, the existence of large-scale purchases of land and mountain heights in the tourist reserves of the Socotra archipelago, led by influential merchants on the island, accompanied by officials of the local authority loyal to the Emirates.
Nasser considered “the selling of lands and vast areas overlooking the coasts and beaches of the sea in the island an explicit violation of local and international laws that criminalize selling in such places, as they are an international heritage and a natural reserve.”
“One of the influential merchants had bought large areas of the beaches overlooking the sea in Darsah island,” he revealed. “There are two influential people in the local authority loyal to the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC), who carry out the buying and selling process for influential merchants, including foreigners.
The specialists warned of the danger threatening the tourist reserves and natural heritage on the Yemeni island of Socotra, as a result of the Emirati delegate and the unlimited influencers tampering with the valleys and heights of the coastal strip of the Socotra archipelago.
In September 2020, some press reports revealed that the UAE and its loyal factions on the island had carried out large-scale purchases of lands and important mountainous heights in the archipelago’s tourist reserves, which were led by the Emirati representative, Khalfan Al Mazrouei, and a number of leaders affiliated with the Saudi-led coalition.
According to reports, the Delisha beach, among those lands that influencers trying to tamper, located north of Socotra to the east of the capital, Hadiboh, which is one of the most beautiful and important tourist beaches that visitors and tourists from all over the world have come to enjoy with its clean air and stunning views, in addition to buying a large areas in the national park in Dixum Reserve, the Qarah coast, southwest of Socotra.
The reports confirmed that Al Mazrouei fenced off the land that was purchased and built inside, and placed strict guards from outside Socotra and surveillance cameras to track citizens.
Article (385) of the Yemeni Law of 2015 prohibits owning sea beaches, coasts and natural reserves, and the law regulates their exploitation and use.
Environmental experts and organizations had previously warned of the possibility of excluding Socotra from the World Natural Heritage List due to the tampering with which the island was exposed at the hands of the coalition forces.
AA