The Planning Administration has established practical ways of preserving open spaces • Ecologists explain: "The state of our natural resources is deteriorating"

• Cane Creek

  Photo: 

  Jonathan Raz, the Yarkon River Authority

The Planning Administration has for the first time established practical action plans to preserve the open spaces protected in Israel under the Strategic Plan for 2040, Israel Today has learned.

The action plan basically includes locating and mapping some 500 wetland and terrestrial habitats for conservation, locating about 400 biodiversity sites for conservation, proposing about 80 new nature reserves to preserve them, extensions of some 55 existing nature reserves, promoting five district programs to " Ecological corridors "- Continuous strips of open space connecting natural areas, mapping about 100" bottlenecks "(narrow strip of built-up areas that, if closed - will not be open space) to raise their level of protection, and maintain urban nature promotion in 50 cities.

The Administration has recently presented to the National Planning and Building Council the plan for the next two decades on housing, infrastructure and transportation, and the innovation is cutting out tangible action plans in the open space for future planning. The plan is promoted by the Planning Administration in collaboration with a series of bodies and government ministries, including the Ministries of Agriculture, Housing, RMI, the Nature and Parks Authority, JNF and more.

"The plans come out of a healthy perspective for the state, which has been validated in recent months by isolated people in their homes who have made access to accessible open spaces both near home and in large spaces," explains Israel Today, Dotan Rotem, ecologist of the Nature and Parks Authority, who co-chairs the Planning Administration program.

This program also emphasizes areas known as "bottlenecks", narrow areas that, if left unchecked, will lead to complete blockage of the ecological corridor. Given the high importance of these areas, the open space chapter proposes raising their level of conservation to a strict level of conservation.

Dr. Iris Bernstein, landscape ecologist and architect who advises the Planning Administration on the issue, sharpened that "the current vision that includes reference to open spaces is a reflection of reference to all of our natural resources, whose condition is deteriorating rapidly."

The Planning Administration also proposes the addition of nature reserves, with emphasis on those not currently represented in protected areas, in light of a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of natural areas. Thus it is proposed to promote the Korazim area as a nature reserve. There are a variety of endangered habitats in this area.

Another example of a proposed area for wildlife conservation is the Poleg River Egg, which has a very large concentration of rare species.