Adaptive management at the Ramat Hanadiv Nature Park, Israel: Expectations vs. Reality in a dry Mediterranean ecosystem
Liat Hadar, Ramat Hanadiv Nature Park, Zikhron Ya'akov (IL)
Ramat Hanadiv, a privately-owned Mediterranean Nature Park in Northern Israel, is managed according to the "adaptive management" approach, followed by a long term monitoring program (LTER). Thirty years of applying active management in the park, aimed to conserve its biological assets, among other goals, resulted in three main lessons: (1) Scientific knowledge is never sufficient, hence most management decisions are not objective but value-driven; (2) Highest ecological values exist in the most disturbed habitats; and (3) No park is an island! Moreover, the community is and should be a central player in most management decisions.