There are some protected areas, but in general the habitats have been degraded by the grazing of livestock, especially camels and goats; they are also at risk from oil spills, off-road driving and poaching.

This dry ecoregion contains a mixture of habitats including mangrove swamps, lagoons and mudflats on the coast, gravelly plains and savanna with thorny acacia trees inland with a background of the Musandam and Al Hajar mountains.

The coastal mangrove consists of Avicennia marina, trees of the inland savanna include Ziziphus spina-christi (Christ's Thorn Jujube), Prosopis cineraria (Ghaf) and Vachellia tortilis (Umbrella Thorn), while the mountains are home to Ficus salicifolia (Wonderboom) and Vachellia tortilis.

Urban areas in this ecoregion in Oman include the country's capital and largest city, the historical port of Muscat, and the fishing towns of Barka, famous for its bull-butting, and Sohar, legendarily the home of Sindbad the Sailor, and the resort of Al Sawadi.

Other threats to the ecoregion include oil spills in the sea, poaching of wildlife and off-road driving to locations such as Wadi Bani Awf.