Delisha Beach

Arrival day

On the classic eight-day circuit the vehicles go from the airport to Wadi Ayhaft and then down to the coast, and the first night is spent at a camp on Delisha beach. On the hotel-based tour the group checks in at a hotel in Hadibo and drives out to Delisha in the late afternoon for a swim and the sunset. The 15-day expedition also starts here, with the sunset and a first night at the camp.

Camping at Delisha

The camp on Delisha beach is pitched by the crew and is not one of the island's six eco-campsites. One source lists toilets and a shower at Delisha, and no other source confirms them, so ask about facilities for your dates. An eco-lodge near Delisha keeps its own nursery of endemic plants beside the lodge.

Unregulated construction

In 2019 the World Heritage Committee noted with concern reports of unregulated construction at Delisha beach and at Serhin Lagoon. In May 2025 the joint UNESCO/IUCN monitoring mission recorded three findings at Delisha. Land along more than 90 per cent of the coastline had been acquired illegally. An asphalt road had been built without an impact assessment. A large hotel complex and agriculture projects had also been built in a nature sanctuary without authorisation.

The grounded tanker

An oil tanker, the Gulf Dove, has been stranded at the Delisha Nature Sanctuary since November 2019, and in January 2023 it spilled oil. In its 2023 decision the World Heritage Committee noted its concern about the potential impact of the spill. The same decision commended the new requirement for environmental impact assessments, urged that it be put into practice, and warned that the combined effect of the pressures on Socotra could endanger the values for which it is listed. As of the Committee's 2024 decision, no impact assessment had been carried out.

The rules on building

What may be built on Socotra is governed by a Conservation Zoning Plan from a Presidential Decree of 2000. The 2025 mission found that its revision is not yet finalised or legally approved, that its boundaries are not demarcated or well understood locally, and that its provisions are often violated without consequence. The assessment regime was approved in September 2021 and began operating that December, but the mission found major infrastructure going ahead without assessments. The independent management authority that IUCN asked for in 2008 has never been created.

Building across the island

In a single week of fieldwork in 2025, the mission counted at least 86 illegal or unauthorised land encroachments across Socotra. Built-up land on the island grew from 0.49 km² in 1985 to 23.0 km² in 2024, and Hadibo, the town near Delisha, accounts for about a third of it. No archipelago-wide management plan has been adopted since the last one expired in 2008.

In July 2026 the World Heritage Committee asked Yemen to enforce a moratorium on unauthorised construction, land allocations and the building of walls inside the property, and to reverse unlawful land allocations, particularly in sensitive coastal and plateau areas.