The two directorates of Hawf of Al-Mahra Governorate have gained their importance and fame as it embraces one of the most important and most famous wild nature reserves in Yemen, which is the Hawf Reserve, where the reserve occupies an area of about 30,000 hectares, and constitutes a natural point of sharing between Yemen and the Sultanate of Oman. With any political law, even the neighborhoods in it live according to the law of nature without being concerned about any human law, the reserve has expanded and continued its natural extensions to sit over Yemeni lands in Al-Mahra Governorate and Omani lands in Salalah Governorate in rare biological and natural harmony, until this natural treasure has become a common denominator between the two countries.
The reserve, with its geographical location, is located at longitude 41 16 37 /? 16 north and at latitude 04 53 55 /? 52 East and extends along the southern coasts of the Arabian Sea on a stretch of about 60 km to the mountain of Ras Fartak, and it is of a mountainous and maritime geographical character, where these heights are covered with beautiful green cover and with a wonderful natural symmetry, as it grades to the highest heights, which are about 1,400 meters above sea level.
The Hawf Reserve is considered one of the largest forests in the Arabian Peninsula, as geography indicates, as it is dominated by tropical plants for hundreds of years, and the dense and wide spread of its plants is nothing but a natural reflection of its moderate temperature and humid climate in some months of the year, where it is enveloped in fog. From mid-July to mid-September, the monsoon falls at a rate of 300-700 mm, and a dry, extremely hot climate prevails in the rest of the months of the year.
Its natural form and rare biological treasures have made it the focus of attention of researchers, tourists and environmentalists, which made the Yemeni government endeavor to formally embrace it and declare it an official nature reserve in August of 2005.
