Dr. Eil Matrani
is in charge of the visitor and community field at the National Parks Authority,
an expert in the management and experience of visiting protected areas. Author of the book "The History of the National Parks Authority: The Designer of Heritage, Tourism and Recreation Sites in Israel, 1955-1998"
Dr. Eil Matrani, the events of Sukkot and Hol HaMoed are at their peak, and with them also the Israelis who go to the national gardens. Why do we actually love these gardens so much?
"Protected areas are a social need, both for this generation and for future generations. We owe ourselves such areas in the spirit of the writer S. Yizhar's words - for the soul, to get away from screens and everyday life, for the physical activity of life, for the social and cultural experience. We saw during the Corona closures the The importance of an open space close to the house. It's like the story of the old Chinese who had two coins. With one he bought bread and with the other a flower. When asked about this, he replied that 'the bread is to live and the flower to be something to live for.'"
Is our love for the national parks reflected in the way we behave in the field? Your doctoral thesis dealt with exactly this topic: changing and strengthening pro-environmental behavior while traveling.
"It depends. Part of my research dealt with the willingness to pick up dirt and empty snack bags on a hiking trail. I implemented several interventions designed to remind visitors of the importance of picking up dirt - to save wild animals, to set a personal example, etc. I was surprised by the readiness of many Israelis to pick up other people's dirt under certain conditions. I I assume that the more difficult the route is, with fewer people, the more the willingness to clean will increase. But in general, I feel that the public space in Israel is desolate, and accepting personal responsibility is limited in many directions related to going out into nature, including the dirt."
It turns out that picking up dirt is not really in our DNA. Perhaps this has to do with the fact that options that are now considered basic - a trash can, a path, toilets, a parking lot and explanatory signs - were until recently an innovative concept. How did the idea to use them come about?
"The conditions in Israel were not good at all. Part of the basis for the change was influenced by tours held abroad.
From there they imported options that today seem trivial to us.
How do you know that then it is considered surprising and innovative?
Actually, the news media published the miracle and the Authority took the trouble to mention it in the pages distributed to visitors.
"Also the fact that the Authority began to promote guided tours of the national parks in the mid-1990s was a novelty. I saw pictures of signs from a few decades ago; there is no way that someone would sit down and read so much text today, without a single picture or illustration. There was an understanding that color is required And technology, a new language."
Back to the first national park
The innovations you described are the result of a trend of focusing on environmental issues in general and national parks in particular. When did this focus actually begin? After all, in the first years of the establishment of the state, the main preoccupation was with security problems, the absorption of immigrants and the improvement of welfare.
"It's amazing, because it already happened in the first years of the state. Along with the existential difficulties and the concept of building for the many immigrants, there were people, including the architects Aryeh Sharon and Eliezer Brotzkos from the planning department, who also cared about national pride and vacation spots. As early as August 1949, Sharon gave a speech that served as a statement of intent on the matter , and at the same time a proposal for 'national parks' began to be written by specialist volunteers. The Sharon plan, in the early 1950s, was the first official expression of recognition of the need for protected areas, as a lesson from the nations of the world. The plan, by the same Arie Sharon, was the first outline plan of Israel".
"Committed to thinking about where he is headed."
The Sachnah, photo: Yossi Zeliger
Continuing with the program, what are the first national parks in Israel, and how did they affect the citizens of the country and their pride?
"Initially they were really called parks, but in the process of enacting the law that regulated the work of the Parks Authority, they changed it to 'national parks.' - Pride and a sense of historical belonging to the country's veterans and the new immigrants - for example, Beit Alfa Synagogue, Beit Shaarim and Mesada; vacation spots mainly around the theme of water - Achziv, Eshkol and Garden of the Three - Sakhana; and also sites that will bring foreign money into the country with the help of tourists - such as Caesarea and Mesada, as mentioned Teddy Kolek, CEO of the Prime Minister's Office, was one of the main pushers to achieve the goals."
It seems that Kolek was the one who gave the big boost to the development of our national parks.
"Kolk understood the importance of tourism to the economy. He promoted his vision with the help of departments he established: the Government Tourism Company brought tourists to Israel, and the Department for Improving the Land's Landscape developed tourist sites. He brought Yan (Yaakov) Yanai to the department. According to the evidence, he was an amazing executive who established Our first tourism body. The controversies also contributed to the development. The struggle for the Carmel and preventing it from becoming a construction site at the head of the river, and the struggle between nature conservationists and site developers during the establishment of Horesh Tal National Park - built the precisions from which national parks are managed today."
These processes - which often consist of people, sites and the disputes between them - can be described as the evolution of the national parks, one that adapts itself to a large extent to the spirit of the times.
"National parks are a social creation that is indeed affected by the spirit of the times and by social, technological and other processes. In Yellowstone National Park in the USA, for example, the first of the national parks in the world, there seems to have been a perceptual evolution that affected various elements of its management.
Things happened in it that 50 years later would not have happened: the absence of a paid administrative staff and the need to assign soldiers to guard its treasures.
About 40 years later, the American National Park Service was established, and Yellowstone underwent a conceptual change as one in a network of parks.
In the 60s of the last century, an ecological concept came in that saw importance in the areas and not only in the details, and this created another perceptual change in the park."
And in Israel?
"Tel Ashkelon National Park went through processes that today are difficult to change. We are witnessing a complex and expensive process designed to enhance the heritage and history values of Tel Ashkelon, based on the assumption that the nearby city is able to provide uses that it did not provide in the past. National parks created 30 years later suffer less from this. Fewer conventions and commitments.
Perceptual evolution.
Yellowstone Park, USA, photo: AP
"In the Yarkon National Park, we went through a fascinating process called the 'Yarkon Star', on the scale of the 'North Star,' and the main thing was to transform it from an urban barbecue park into a national park, where there are hiking trails and activities of culture, music and education. As part of the concept, we are leading to the opening for a tour of complexes that were are closed. There are additional plans to make trails in the National Park accessible and to add to them the delivery, the mediation of the site for visitors. We are looking at turning hiking trails in some of the gardens into quiet trails, where you can hear silence without the noise of modernity."
Have you already done a night trip?
An interesting and quite basic question is how do you even establish a national park?
"The State of Israel has decided on a national outline plan for the issue of protected areas - national parks and nature reserves, which is a sort of road map for the Nature and Parks Authority. In short, it is called TMA 8. From there, a proclamation process takes place until the signature of the Minister of the Interior.
In recent years, the process has been long and complex, but when it happens, there is a national park that goes under the management of the Authority.
Today there are dozens of national parks, most of them free of charge, some of them are tens of thousands of dunams like Carmel and the Judean Mountains, some of them are thousands of dunams like Beit Govrin and some are small like Beit Alfa."
How do you increase the number of visitors to the national parks you mentioned as well as others?
"The numbers are increasing even if we do nothing. We try to provide a comprehensive response. For example, extended opening in the summer. We saw in the Apollonia and Migdal Tzedek National Parks that opening until late brings in much more visitors. Shouldn't it be worth opening some sites only after noon and until later hours? Why open at eight in the morning?"
If we focus on the matter of visitors, in your book, "The History of the National Parks Authority" (Niv Books Publishing), an interesting fact is noted: in 1982, about half a million people visited Yellowstone a year, and about 600,000 in Masada. How and why did the gaps arise as they are today: about 700,000 annual visitors to Masada and about 4 million to Yellowstone?
"There are several answers to this. The first is the dimensions of tourism in the countries. Yellowstone is in a country of about 300 million inhabitants and tens of millions more tourists who are the potential to visit. After that there is the carrying capacity of a site. The area of Yellowstone is approximately 9,000 square kilometers, a little less than half of Israel ".
On the way to overcrowding?
Nahal Alexander,
But mostly it is not possible to travel.
"And yet, it is significantly larger than Masada. You can come to Yellowstone for different uses in different periods, but not to Masada. But it must be remembered that Masada has been a star in Israel for many years in terms of the number of visitors, mainly tourists."
Another site that cannot not be mentioned is the Sahna. Why does it attract so many people? On the one hand, it was previously included in the list of the 20 best parks in the world and is associated with the phenomena of coexistence. On the other hand, it is also associated with the phenomena of violence, overcrowding and high pricing.
"Gan HaSlosha, the Sahnah, is a lovely site, and in my opinion it is most fun to come to it in the winter, when you can find tourist and local waters, because the temperature there is warm all year round. This is an example of an old national park, because every centimeter of it is planned and designed. I am not familiar with what is happening there now, But in Israel - when it's crowded, hot and there are a variety of populations - incidents happen."
The director of the mythological site Yehuda Karmi, who retired some time ago, said that it will not be easy to keep it in good condition for future generations. Do you think so too?
"I assume that just as thinking is required in every national park and at every stage, even Gan Hasholsha, as an old site, is obliged to think about where it is headed in terms of uses, appearance, etc. It is right and good to do this every few years with reference to what is happening at the site itself, in the tourist environment and in the processes in the country."
Sharon Park will continue to wait
What about the jersey? In 2019 it was the most popular website during the holidays, and last year it was not included in the ranking. What do you expect her to do?
"The Majersah is a nature reserve. My colleague says that one should be careful in judging numbers and that it is correct to look at trends. There are about 500 national parks and nature reserves, which make up about a quarter of the country's territory, and each site has an annual life cycle. There are sites that are in great demand in the summer - the water sites In the north, sea beaches; there are sites that are in demand in the winter - Beit Govrin National Park. The trick is to generate demand precisely when it's not busy.
"You have to remember that the last few years were not normal. Israelis stayed in Israel and no tourists came. This is why in 2021 more than half a million Israelis came to Tel Ashkelon and a little less to Yarkon. These are numbers we are not used to. The reference point is to 2019, which was good for tourism."
The beautiful Israeli.
waste collection,
In view of the increase in the scope of construction in Israel, do you fear for the future of the green areas in the country?
"The fear is always there. There was already an interior minister who said that for him a fence should be built all the way to a room, without open spaces. On the other hand, the author S. Yizhar, as mentioned, who was a member of the Knesset during the debates on the National Parks and Nature Reserves Law, gave a speech in 1962 that said: The necessity for a person to have a place to go and shake off the city, and to have contact with the primal, with the open, with the natural, with before being human.'' Be a hotel and not a homeland'.
"I am interested in what will happen here in the country's centenary year. The forecasts speak of 15 million inhabitants. Where will they go? Already today there are populations that have never traveled in the past and are now going to nature and heritage sites. When there are autonomous vehicles, anyone who does not have a car or a car license - will be able to get there easily to bathe in the Palmachim Beach National Park or Nahal Alexander. The heavy traffic today will be unbearable anyway. If we close the Palmachim Beach National Park every Saturday in June already at ten in the morning, what will happen then? We will need actions such as revitalizing sites, locating additional areas now to prepare them for more 25 years, restrictions on access even to free sites. This is an issue that has not yet been addressed."
If so, do you think that the government's attitude towards the national parks is insufficient?
"On the one hand, the state invests resources in the development of heritage and nature. On the other hand, Sharon Park has waited 70 years to be considered one of the national parks. I see situations in which different ministries in the country take opposite approaches to the sites - some push for promotion and some make it difficult. This is characteristic of a country that has no policy clear for the development of heritage and nature for which everyone is mobilizing. Regarding the future, there are countries that only have one or two national parks. There are places where the national parks are regional at all, without a national governing body. So we have something to be proud of, and also a lot to learn."
For suggestions and comments: Ranp@israelhayom.co.il
were we wrong
We will fix it!
If you found an error in the article, we would appreciate it if you shared it with us