This article is part of Al-Masry Al-Youm’s weekly “Endangered Species” series, covering Egypt’s endangered flora and fauna.
Egyptian environmentalists and botanists are calling for the preservation of the millennia-old argun palm, a species of palm tree present in Egypt since the time of the Pharaohs. This rare desert oasis palm, whose population does not exceed 30 wild individuals in Egypt and a few hundred in Sudan, is on the verge of extinction.
Located in remote, arid and very sparsely-populated oases in southern Egypt and northern Sudan, these ancient palm trees are exposed to two kinds of threats: human overuse and climate change.
Haitham Ibrahim, a conservation researcher for the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA), explains that both factors cause stress to the argun palm community. “The argun palm, just like any other desert palm, can only grow where ground water occurs. The past decade has witnessed extreme drought in these areas, and consequently no new siblings have been produced.”
Most argun palms were discovered in the Dungul Oasis, 180km southwest of Aswan, and they grow close to one another, which is also a source of anxiety for the researcher. “If, because of drought or human activity, a fire were to erupt close to the trees, then the whole community would disappear. This is why we need to properly protect this species,” he explains.
Loutfy Boulos, the Egyptian botanist who discovered the first argun palm specimens on Egyptian soil in 1963, explains that “5000 years ago, the desert was greener and the moisture helped species like the argun palm to spread.”
He also blames human over-exploitation of the desert palm as one of the main causes of the tree’s looming extinction. “The fruit is collected and eaten, while the leaves are cut down and used to weave baskets and rugs.”
Ibrahim also blames human use of the palm, adding that the Bedouins use the argun leaves to weave because they are more elastic than other palm leaves, and more convenient. “A moderate use of the palm’s leaves is fine”, Ibrahim says. “What can kill the tree altogether is overuse.”
In order to prevent extinction of this palm, the South Valley Faculty of Aswan has gathered argun seeds to grow new palms in the safety of an ex-situ nursery, baptized the “Desert Garden,” which houses samples of the region’s flora. “We studied the best way to germinate the seeds,” says Ibrahim, “and then we started growing the palms in a very secure environment.”
Seven years since the start of the germination process, 23 trees have successfully grown in the Aswan nursery. And preservation of this rare species should have a wider impact on its surrounding environment, according to Ibrahim. “The Argun trees are part of the area’s biodiversity, and through the protection of this precise tree, it is the conservation of the entire habitat we are concerned with.”
The best way to protect such a wide and remote zone and make sure that its biodiversity remains unspoiled is to file a proposal for a new protected area. “The EEAA seems serious in considering the creation of a new protected area in the southern oases and I am collecting data about the wildlife for the final proposal that I will send them,” Ibrahim says with much enthusiasm.
If the area falls under the protection of the ministry, a budget will be allocated for more regular field trips and to pay employees to be based in the oases.
“If we manage to rapidly declare this zone a protected area, no one can invest and potentially ruin the area’s biodiversity, and the species will be safer,” Ibrahim says. The protected area would cover between 6000 and 8000 square kilometers and include the Dungul and Kurkur oases.
