National Parks and Nature Reserves of Israel

Israel’s legal framework distinguishes national parks from nature reserves by their principal purposes. The 1998 National Parks, Nature Reserves, National Sites and Memorial Sites Law defines a national park as an area serving, or intended to serve, public countryside recreation or the preservation of historical, archaeological, architectural, natural, or landscape values.[1] A nature reserve is an area in which animals, vegetation, nonliving natural features, soil, caves, water, or landscape of scientific or educational interest are preserved against undesirable changes in appearance, biological composition, or development.[1]

In practical descriptions, reserves are chiefly associated with protecting ecosystems, habitats, wildlife, plants, and distinctive nonliving features. National parks more often combine public access and recreation with natural scenery or cultural and archaeological heritage, although the statutory purposes overlap.[6][7] Israel’s National Master Plan for Nature Reserves, NMP 8, sets out three categories in descending order of restrictions: nature reserves, national parks, and scenic or landscape reserves. The cited passage does not set out the detailed rules for each category.[8]

The protected landscapes range from Mediterranean forests and scrub to seashores, dunes, desert and crater terrain, and oases. They include places selected principally for ecological value as well as public recreation areas and historic sites.[2] Some parks are associated with no particular historic site; their stated purpose has included protecting rural landscapes against urban development.[9]

The Hula Valley became a defining early case in Israeli nature conservation. In the early 1950s, the state decided to drain Lake Hula and nearby wetlands to expand agricultural land in the Galilee. Experts objected that peat soils could sink and become unsuitable for cultivation, while nature lovers warned that drainage would destroy indigenous flora and fauna. The unsuccessful effort to halt the project helped prompt the decision to establish a reserve and the founding of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel.[4][10]

The Jewish National Fund undertook the drainage project from 1951 to 1958, with stated goals of creating arable land and eradicating malaria. A 350-hectare papyrus swamp area in the valley’s southwest was set aside as a reserve. One account dates its establishment as Israel’s first nature reserve to 1963, while another says the authority named the Lake Hula area as the first declared reserve in 1964. The Central Zionist Archives records a decision on June 6, 1956, to turn part of the lake into a reserve, describing that decision as a landmark in environmental policy.[10][11][4]

Following drainage, 119 animal species were lost from the region, including 37 that disappeared entirely from Israel, and many freshwater plant species also became extinct. Subsequent problems included peat decomposition and subsidence, underground fires, dust storms, crop damage, and nitrates and sulfates washing into Lake Kinneret.[10]

Israel’s institutional structure developed over several decades. The National Parks Authority was established by law in 1963, taking over work carried out since 1956 by the Prime Minister’s Office Department for Landscaping and the Preservation of Historic Sites. Its early responsibilities included preparing public park areas, restoring and preserving historic and archaeological sites, providing visitor access and amenities, and preparing explanatory material at ancient sites.[12] The Nature Reserves Authority was established in 1964 under the framework of the 1963 National Parks and Nature Reserves Law. The law’s stated purposes included preserving and developing reserves and natural assets, protecting wild plants and animals, and safeguarding landscape quality and beauty.[3]

The two authorities were united in 1998 as the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. Its work includes identifying and planning protected sites, managing existing parks and reserves, overseeing natural resources, conducting research, and initiating educational activities.[9] The 1998 law gives the Authority functions that include establishing, maintaining, operating, and enhancing protected areas; preserving and restoring natural assets inside and outside them; supervising natural assets and heritage; documenting information; promoting public education; and conducting or supporting research.[1] The creation of the nature and parks authorities formed part of the gradual development of environmental administration, alongside bodies established in the 1970s and the Ministry of Environment in the late 1980s. Environmental responsibilities remained distributed among ministries and government offices, with some powers transferred to the environmental ministry during the 1990s.[13]

The legal framework was revised in 1992 and 1997. It remains the principal structure for protecting habitats, wildlife, natural assets, and sites of scientific, historic, architectural, and educational interest.[3] The National Parks, Nature Reserves, National Sites and Memorials Law, 1998, is also listed among the environmental laws surveyed in a 2005 study, though the cited passage does not detail its provisions.[14]

Designation follows a planning and statutory process. Under the 1998 law, the Minister of the Interior may declare an area a national park or nature reserve in consultation with the Minister of Environmental Protection. Before a declaration, a plan designating the area must be approved, and the National Parks, Nature Reserves and National Sites Council and the relevant local authority must have an opportunity to provide their views. The declaration must be published in Reshumot.[1] The law gives a declaration precedence over other designations subject to specified exceptions, and makes revocation subject to agreement by the Environmental Protection Minister, the Council, and the relevant local authority, as well as approval by a Knesset committee.[1]

The planning stage takes place under the Planning and Building Law, followed, after plan approval, by declaration under the parks and reserves law. A 2022 account says the Interior Minister signs the designation and the Justice Ministry is subsequently involved. It reported that no new reserves were declared in 2020, when Israel had no government, and described 2019 as a record year for declarations at that time.[15]

The law also allows species and inanimate features to be designated as protected natural assets, either throughout Israel or in a specific region or locality. Taking, destroying, possessing, or trading such assets without Authority permission is prohibited. Protected assets outside reserves include hundreds of plant and animal species, as well as features such as fossils and beach rock.[3] The 1992 legislation likewise allowed a minister to designate species and inanimate natural objects as protected and prohibited acts including destroying, damaging, picking up, uprooting, poisoning, or altering a protected asset.[16]

Harmful acts in protected areas are restricted, and inspectors have certain police powers, including powers to prevent damage to nature and detain or arrest suspected offenders.[7] The legal and administrative framework therefore extends beyond marking boundaries: it encompasses planning, management, site operations, natural-resource oversight, enforcement, research, and education.[1][3]

Responsibilities are not confined to a single administrative setting. A separate Civil Administration unit is responsible for the treatment, maintenance, and preservation of nature reserves and parks in Judea and Samaria. Its listed tasks include declaring and managing reserves, parks, and protected zones; protecting wildlife; conducting patrols and preservation research; developing visitor sites; and supervising open areas. Herodium, Qumran, and Sebastia are among the prominent historical sites it identifies.[17]

The Hula story also became one of restoration. A project begun in 1993 was funded jointly by the Israeli government, which supplied 67 percent, and the Jewish National Fund, which supplied 33 percent. Lake Agmon was flooded in April and May 1994. The project’s stated aims included preserving peat soils, reducing pollution reaching Lake Kinneret, and creating a shallow lake and surrounding landscape for wildlife, tourism, and recreation.[10]

At least 120 bird species were recorded in or around Lake Agmon in the first three years after reflooding. More than 30 aquatic plant species re-established spontaneously, and five of ten plant species selected for reintroduction established populations within two years.[10] The history illustrates how conservation policy has included both setting aside remaining habitat and attempting to restore ecological functions after large-scale landscape change.

Species restoration has also been carried out through managed breeding and release. A Persian fallow deer reintroduction project led by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority established a breeding core at Hai-Bar Carmel in 1976 with two males and five females. Later releases were made sequentially in three connected reserves in northern Israel, beginning at Kziv. The project improved survival prospects for the species and re-established ecosystem processes.[18]

Important gaps remain in the protected-area network. Although the share of terrestrial area protected exceeded the Aichi Target 11 benchmark, most protected area was in desert regions. Mediterranean forest, bush steppe, alluvial valleys, and loess areas were insufficiently represented. Habitat loss and fragmentation remained major threats, and connecting protected areas was still a challenge despite corridor planning and significant bottlenecks.[3] Habitat fragmentation has been particularly serious in the Mediterranean region: 63 percent of reserves were smaller than one square kilometer and another 25 percent were smaller than ten square kilometers. Small reserves are vulnerable to impacts from surrounding areas, while wildlife and habitats face pressures beyond reserve boundaries.[2]

Marine protection developed from a comparatively limited base. From the mid-1960s to the early 2000s, Israel declared seven small marine reserves totaling 10.4 square kilometers, generally extending only a few hundred metres offshore. They protected coastal islets and shallow-water habitats down to 20 metres but did not represent the full marine environment. A marine protected-area policy presented by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority in 2012 proposed a broader system and planned coverage of more than 600 square kilometers.[3]

In 2022, only 4 percent of Israel’s sovereign waters were protected as marine nature reserves, and the Authority sought to increase the share to at least 10 percent. Marine reserve expansion was identified as an Authority priority.[19] The southern Eilat coast has a marine protected belt about four kilometres long, approximately parallel to two onshore reserves extending from the southern end of Eilat toward the Taba border crossing. The Almog Coast is described as a closed-off, declared reserve.[8]

Development pressures remain significant. Between 2015 and 2017, areas designated as nature reserves grew by 5 percent and national parks by 6 percent, although large portions of designated areas were controlled by the Israel Defense Forces and functioned as firing ranges. Construction and agriculture were placing pressure on undeveloped land, and conversion of undeveloped areas to built-up land from 2014 to 2017 was the fastest in the preceding 20 years, particularly in central and northern Israel.[5]

Open-space protection, biodiversity, habitats, invasive species, wildlife, landscapes, and recreation were central themes in a research project conducted from 2000 to 2013. The research contributed to policy and decision-making concerning nature protection, forest use, river channels, the Jerusalem hills, and metropolitan park management in central Israel.[20]

The protected-area system spans varied ecological and historical settings. Representative sites include Carmel National Park, Hula Nature Reserve, and Hermon Stream Nature Reserve, the latter associated with waterfall hikes in the Golan.[21] The Hula Valley’s reserve protects a remnant of wetland landscape, while other sites represent wooded uplands, coastal habitats, desert terrain, springs, streams, and marine environments.[2]

In the Carmel region, Mount Carmel was identified as Israel’s first biosphere reserve in 1996. Ramat Menashe was designated by UNESCO as the country’s second in June 2011. Ramat Menashe is described as a 17.3-square-kilometre mosaic of Mediterranean ecological systems, including evergreen woodland and scrub as well as steppe and semi-desert biodiversity. Controlled livestock grazing was used to maintain those communities; the area included 13 cooperative agricultural communities and a population of 10,000.[3]

Historical parks preserve remains from different periods and cultures. Examples include the Crusader city of Caesarea and Crusader remains at Acre, castles at Yehi’am and Belvoir, the Roman theater at Beth-Shean, and Nabatean or Nabatean-Byzantine sites at Avedat, Shivta, and Kurnub.[9] Other public sites combine natural features and recreation: Ḥurshat Tal has streams, a pond, lawns, and woods; Ma’ayan Ḥarod includes a spring, bathing pool, and wooded slopes; Gan ha-Sheloshah has three natural pools; Ashkelon’s seashore park combines antiquities and shoreline; Ein Avedat has natural pools; and Ein Ḥemed contains Crusader remains.[12]

The parks and reserves also safeguard places with religious and cultural significance. Mount Gerizim, south of Nablus, was inaugurated as a national park in 2012. It is the holiest site of the Samaritan religion and receives Samaritan pilgrims; community members hoped the designation would attract visitors.[22] The site’s political significance has also been framed in competing terms, discussed below.

Coastal and marine designations include both natural and archaeological values. In November 2024, five conservation sites were announced: HaSharon National Park, Berekhat Ya’ar Nature Preserve, Avtach protected area, Heart of Ramon Crater Nature Reserve and National Park, and Yam Caesarea National Park. Yam Caesarea was described as Israel’s first marine national park, extending underwater from the terrestrial Caesarea park and intended to protect archaeological remains of the ancient port alongside natural values. The Authority said underwater heritage and nature would be made accessible through activities including diving, swimming, and snorkeling.[23]

The 2024 reporting also described an expansion of the Evtach marine reserve, created in 2022 as Israel’s first offshore protected area. The expansion was reported as 67,108 dunams, extending about seven kilometres offshore to a maximum depth of roughly 39 metres. The reserve protects sandy and rocky seabed habitats and marine wildlife, including the common dolphin.[23] The same article described 13,300 dunams in the Large Ramon Crater as the Heart of the Ramon Crater Nature Reserve and National Park. This was presented as the final stage in implementing a government decision to protect the entire crater for conservation and tourism; the land had previously been designated for mining, quarrying, and related industry and had been partially mined.[23]

In Hadera, HaSharon National Park covers 1,665 dunams and includes beaches, kurkar ridges, rare and endemic plants, stabilized and semi-stabilized sands, winter ponds, and coastal woodland. Nearby Forest Pond Nature Reserve covers 236 dunams and protects one of the few remaining seasonal ponds. Thousands of such ponds once dotted the coastal plain, while only a few dozen remained by the time of publication.[23]

Sharon Park, at the edge of Hadera Forest, is described as a six-square-kilometre national park. Its trails pass through green spaces with carob and oak trees, remnants of an ancient Mount Tabor oak forest, seasonal flowers, and birds. Ata Pond, among eucalyptus trees, is described as a remnant of the former swamps.[24] The surrounding history is tied to the marshes present when Hadera was founded. Mosquito-infested swamps caused fatal malaria cases among settlers; eucalyptus trees were planted in 1896 in an unsuccessful attempt to dry them, and the water was ultimately pumped into the Alexander River. The site now includes a eucalyptus grove with shaded areas and picnic tables.[24]

Hadera’s Iris Hill, beside the Ein HaYam neighborhood, is a nature site for a purple iris endemic to the region. The flower blooms from January through March, and the hill is described as the world’s most northerly observation point for it. Other listed plants include fragrant white furze, bright-blue Dyer’s Alkanet, seasonal anemones, and primrose.[24]

Nahal Hadera Park was established alongside construction of the Maor David power station, now known as Orot Rabin. A 1.5-kilometre stretch of stream was restored: seawater used to cool the station’s turbines is pumped back into the stream, maintaining flow throughout the year. The park has a walking path, recreation areas, and a suspension bridge connecting the banks and nearby dunes.[24] In winter, sharks gather in warm water flowing from the power station and may come within several metres of shore. Visitors can view them from an information station and observation post open on winter weekends and holidays.[24]

The Negev includes protected crater landscapes as well as sites important to wildlife movement. In 2019, the Small Crater was declared a nature reserve covering 61 million square metres. Its designation required lengthy negotiations because part of the area lies near Israel’s Nuclear Research Center; the Authority took facility personnel on a tour to demonstrate the area’s ecological value. The crater is an important nesting site for eagles and other birds of prey and a route for mountain goats moving between the central Negev and the Judean Desert.[25]

Public access is a central feature of many parks, although site rules and admission arrangements differ. Nature reserves have been described as marked and regulated areas intended to protect ecosystems, habitats, wildlife, plants, nonliving natural features, and scenery. They are open to the public free of charge, while national parks are generally enclosed and most often charge admission; the law’s broader purposes include public recreation and preservation of historic, archaeological, architectural, natural, or scenic values.[6]

Older visitor figures show the network’s growth in public use, but should not be read as current counts. In 2010, the Authority oversaw 67 sites, all open to the public, with some offering free admission. National parks recorded 7.9 million visits in 2008, 68 percent by Israelis and 32 percent by foreign visitors, compared with 3.7 million in 2001 and 6.1 million in 2005.[26] In 2008, parks in northern Israel accounted for 40 percent of visits and those in the south for 27 percent; about 75 percent of national parks were in those two regions combined, while the Jerusalem District received 12 percent of visits.[26]

For the period covered by the 2010 figures, Banyas Springs, Ein Gedi, and Beit Yanai Beach were named as the most popular nature parks, and Masada, Caesarea, and Qumran as the most popular historical sites. These are historical rankings, not current ones.[26] National parks received more than two million visitors in 1968, while another reference account records more than ten million visitors to 58 public parks and reserves in 2003.[12][9]

One government account states that more than 150 reserves and 65 national parks were under the Israel Nature and Parks Authority’s supervision and together encompassed nearly 1,000 square kilometres. About 20 reserves had been developed for public use with visitor centres, roads, and hiking trails, attracting more than two million people annually. The same account describes Israel as a migration route for more than 500 million birds each year.[27]

For 2025, about 8.58 million Israeli visits to reserves and national parks were reported, up about 27 percent from 6.76 million in 2024, alongside about 197,000 visits by foreign tourists, 91 percent below 2023. Total visits to Authority sites were about 8.78 million, compared with nearly 13 million in 2019. Palmahim National Park was the most visited site in 2025. Many sites had faced repeated closures during 2024 amid fighting, while most remained open in 2025 except during the direct conflict with Iran in June.[28]

Education and public conduct have also been part of conservation work. A wildflower-protection campaign included an illustration series titled “Don’t Pick the Wild Flowers!” launched by the Israel Nature Authority in 1969–1973. A 1974 poster, “Protected Wild Flowers: Don’t Pick Wild Flowers!”, was painted by Mary Grierson and Heather Wood, designed by Danny Kerman, and produced for the Nature Reserves Authority and the Society for the Protection of Nature.[29]

Trails connect protected landscapes and sites, but the conventions of outdoor access have sometimes prompted debate. Planners of the Israel National Trail solicited route suggestions from, among others, Parks and Nature Authority supervisors. Some field-school guides opposed marking trails, arguing that markers would erode a culture of walking unmarked routes and leave a human footprint in natural areas; supporters argued for marking the route.[30]

Available counts describe different years and statuses—such as established, declared, approved, or still proposed areas—and should not be treated as a single current census. In 2014, declared nature reserves covered 4,645 square kilometres, or 21 percent of Israel’s area. A further 352 square kilometres had been approved, 172 square kilometres were in the approval process, and another 1,739 square kilometres had been suggested for protection. National parks had a different stated role—recreation in nature and protection of cultural heritage—and covered 190 square kilometres, or 0.9 percent of Israel’s area.[3]

Since the preceding reporting period, reserve area had increased by 7 percent, or 160 square kilometres, while suggested areas for declaration had increased by 2.5 percent, or 45 square kilometres. For national parks, 1.67 square kilometres had been declared, 11 square kilometres approved, 5.57 square kilometres were in process, and 18.35 square kilometres had been suggested.[3]

A 2012 annex lists 218 reserves and 74 national parks under the Authority’s responsibility, covering approximately 21 percent of Israel’s land area. It also lists 246 proposed reserves and 73 proposed parks at different stages of planning or declaration.[3] Other published figures differ: one reference account gives 380 nature reserves covering 6,130 square kilometres and 115 national parks covering 370 square kilometres, while saying 58 sites were open to the public.[9] Another conservation account distinguishes about 160 established reserves and 65 established parks from totals of 380 reserves and 115 parks at various planning stages.[2]

A separate government account gives more than 150 reserves and 65 parks, together encompassing nearly 1,000 square kilometres, while an Authority profile describes more than 500 parks and reserves that together cover about a quarter of the country.[27][31] These figures differ in date, scope, and apparent status definitions. They are best understood as snapshots from separate accounts rather than directly interchangeable measures.

Some disputes concern the costs and goals of conservation policy. The Hula drainage project was supported as a way to expand agriculture and eradicate malaria, but experts challenged its agricultural rationale and conservationists warned of losses to the valley’s flora and fauna. The later reserve decision and restoration efforts followed that conflict over the wetlands’ future.[4][10] Sources also differ over whether the Hula area became Israel’s first nature reserve in 1963 or 1964, while the Central Zionist Archives separately records a decision to reserve part of Lake Hula in 1956.[11][4]

A proposal to expand Jerusalem Walls National Park into parts of the Mount of Olives was first initiated in 2022, according to the U.S. Department of State’s 2023 religious-freedom report. The Authority’s stated rationale was to restore neglected land and preserve historic landscapes without harming church properties included in the park. Critics said the plan would encompass holy sites important to Christian denominations and to Jewish and Muslim traditions; the report said discussion was postponed until August 2024.[32]

Designations in Judea and Samaria have also been politically contested. The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center reported a declaration involving seven new preserves and expansion of 12 existing ones, covering an area described by security sources as about 32,000 acres, mostly national land. It said the Civil Administration would advance the project and that the sites would then be opened to the public by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. The report attributed objections to the Palestinian Authority, which regarded the initiative as an effort to take control of Palestinian lands and influence the future of Area C. Its timing is internally inconsistent: the report section is headed as part of a January 2020 report, while the text dates the declaration to January 15, 2019.[33]

Mount Gerizim’s 2012 park inauguration likewise carried competing political interpretations. Israeli Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan framed the opening as affirming Jewish historical ties, while Ynet reported that Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said he would seek UNESCO recognition of Mount Gerizim as a Palestinian World Heritage Site. The mountain is also the holiest site of the Samaritan religion and a destination for Samaritan pilgrims.[22]

Some reported statistics require similar care. A 2010 article’s description of the Jerusalem District visitor share uses the label “Judea and Samaria” for part of its regional account; the visitor figures do not settle territorial status. Counts of parks, reserves, and protected land also vary across publications and reporting periods, so historical totals should not be presented as current or treated as precisely comparable.[26][3]