Friends of Soqotra Ten Years - Annual Meeting Bern 2011‏

Dear visitor,

We would like to announce the date and place for the 10th FoS AGM, planned for September 23-25th in Bern, Switzerland, kindly hosted this year by Dr Eike Neubert.

10th FoS AGM Invitation
Ten years ago, Friends of Soqotra (FoS) was established, a non-profit charity organization initiated and maintained by a number of volunteers, for the promotion of the sustainable use and conservation of the natural and cultural environment of the Soqotra Archipelago (Yemen). The Friends of Soqotra Annual Meeting is one of the organization’s main activities. The annual meeting provides a platform where people of all ages and nationalities are welcome and where ideas can be exchanged. It enhances communication between groups and individuals involved or interested in the island, transferred to Soqotra through the Tayf newsletter. FoS is now a decade young. During this time, Soqotra underwent strong changes and threats to the natural and cultural heritage have increased. FoS would like to continue its commitment and maintain promotion of the international communication between groups involved or interested in Soqotran culture and nature.
We would like to welcome you to the 10th AGM of the FoS, held at the Naturhistorisches Museum der Burgergemeinde Bern, Bern, Switzerland, 23th-25th September 2011, kindly hosted by Dr Eike Neubert.
We hereby invite members of FoS and non-members, people with a wider interest in Soqotra, to attend the lectures and join in the discussions. During the FoS Conference, an update on current issues on Soqotra will be presented, including members from different institutions and with very diverse interests - which has always lead to fruitful discussions in the past, interaction and communication between international groups visiting the island.
Details on the venue will be sent in a next circular. We invite presentations. If you feel interested, please send a topic of your talk (open to anything regarding Soqotra) and a few lines to AGM 2011 Steering Committee BEFORE June 6, 2011, or to our host, Dr Eike Neubert at eike.neubert@nmbe.ch. Based on this, we will prepare a programme. If certain of attending, please forward your schedule of arrival and departure as well. For requests/questions, please contact the Steering Committee. Note that FoS cannot reimburse expenses for travel or accommodation costs and hope you can cover this by expense of your institute or individually. A programme will follow in June and the FoS is open to a wide public and we look forward to seeing new faces every year, anyone interested in attending talks about ongoing research on Socotra in any field, updates and meeting others that are active on the island. Membership is not required for attending the meeting.
with best

Kay Van Damme,
FoS Chairman

Three dozens of Socotri tourist guides and drivers participated in a waste management training delivered by Dr. Mounir Bushra Mina

Three dozens of Socotri tourist guides and drivers participated in a waste management training delivered by Dr. Mounir Bushra Mina, an Egyptian waste management specialist, on March 9, 2011 in Hadibo
Dr. Mina has been engaged by QUDRAT project of the Italian Cooperation to make an assessment of current solid waste situation on Socotra and to recommend a new solid waste management system for the island.

The topic of the training drew a keen attention of its audience working in tourism industry. A discussion following an introductory lecture included many serious questions and was concluded by identifying the most important issues related to waste management on Socotra. This last part of the meeting was requested by tourist guides themselves who feel that uncontrolled polluting of Socotra is not only harmful for the nature but also for their business.

Past and present human impacts on the biodiversity of Socotra Island (Yemen): Implications for future conservation

Just to let you know that "THE SOCOTRA CONSERVATION ARTICLE: Past and present human impacts on the biodiversity of Socotra Island (Yemen): Implications for future conservation" by Kay Van Damme and Lisa Banfield just got published in the Zoology in the Middle East, Special Issue 3 (2011), currently free to download from http://www.kasparek-verlag.de!

World's Biggest Cave?

Straight from karstworlds and National Geographic
Britisch team led by Howard Limbert discovered what they claim to be the biggest cave in the world in a remote part of Vietnam.

A photography and filming crew from National Geographic Channel joined the team in 2010 on a 20 day expedition into Hang Son Doong ("Mountain River Cave").

Together with an international team of scientists they hiked deep into the jungle of the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park and descened into the abyss to find out the thruth: Is this cave really bigger then Deer Cave (Malaysia), the current record holder?

You can read the report of the expedion in the January 2011 edition of the National Geographic Magazine both in paper version as well as online. On the NGC website you can also find a nice picture gallery and an interactive map of Hang Son Doong.

The documentary "World's biggest cave" will be aired the first time in Europe on January 30th at 21.00 (GMT+1). You can find the trailer below:



And the 3D topographical map:

Best wishes for all!

Dear reader,

Now that this blog got updated for 2010, we can freshly start with this year.
Insh Allah, our new website about a decade of cave exploration and research of the Soqotran Underground will be put online later this year. SKP is still ongoing and our new Scope of Work of SKP10 is getting shape. We will keep you posted right here!

Best wishes, good heatlh, friendship, prosperity and happiness, especially to all our friends on Soqotra.

Messed up?

If you are totally “messed up” and still in need of a gift for under your tree, why not waste your money on this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h68adwH3VVM

Socotra Governance & Biodiversity Project 2010 achievements

Bohdana Rambouskova, Communication Officer of the Socotra Governance & Biodiversity Project, put the SGBP 2010 achievements on you tube: