Exploring Nature. Expanding Knowledge.

We coordinate the Dhofar Biodiversity Monitoring Program in Southern Oman, collecting vital data with volunteers to assess biodiversity health and inform government conservation policies.

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We coordinate the Dhofar Biodiversity Monitoring Program to track the health of Dhofar’s biodiversity. By doing this, we can understand how it responds to conservation and development actions and climate change. Our fully equipped field station relocates annually, cycling through Dhofar’s three spectacular mountain ranges over a rolling three-year period.

The data we collect, made possible through the efforts of our volunteers, is a vital resource for understanding the health of Dhofar’s biodiversity. Our findings directly inform government decisions on conservation policy and practice, and have resulted in the designation of several protected areas in the Dhofar region since 2014.

  • "If there be any region in Arabia entitled to the epithet 'Happy,' other than the Yemen, whose glories were well known to the ancients, it is this province of Dhufar, an Arcadia of luxuriant forests that clothe steep mountains overlooking the sea, of perennial streams and sunny meadows, of wide vistas and verdant glades."

    Bertram Thomas

  • “No man can live this life and emerge unchanged. He will carry, however faint, the imprint of the desert, the brand which marks the nomad; and he will have within him the yearning to return, weak or insistent according to his nature. For this cruel land can cast a spell which no temperate clime can match”

    Wilfred Thesiger

  • “Great fig trees, and whispering willows, hummingbirds, dragonflies and outsize butterflies ascend the curving valley to higher waterfalls and other smaller villages, until the forested ravines meet with the wild-flower-filled meadows of the mountaintop world”

    Ranulph Fiennes

  • “The harder the life, the finer the person. In the desert I found a freedom unattainable in civilization; a life unhampered by possessions…”

    Wilfred Thesiger

The Dhofar Biodiversity Monitoring Program (DBMP)

Global wildlife populations have already declined by 69% on average since 1970 (WWF’s Living Planet Index), and the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss are placing immense pressure on fragile ecosystems. Drylands such as those in the Arabian Peninsula lie at the edge of their ecological limits, making them especially vulnerable to the loss of rare, endemic, and threatened species.

The Dhofar Biodiversity Monitoring Program employs a suite of biodiversity monitoring methods to track the distribution and size of wildlife populations, in order to understand the impacts of human activities and climate change. This knowledge is essential for making informed decisions about development, natural resource management, and environmental conservation.

From our field station in the mountains, we use a range of contemporary monitoring technologies such as camera traps and passive acoustic monitoring as well as more conventional survey methods across a broad range of taxonomic groups.

Oman has a proud history of protecting its natural heritage. By continuing this commitment, long-term monitoring can serve as a critical tool for guiding conservation efforts and documenting the recovery and restoration of its unique biodiversity into the future.

Interested in joining our field team?