Forest: Journal of Forests and Open Land Management - Volume 15, December 2015

Dalit Gasul (1)* and Deborah F. Shmueli (2)

1 Department of Tourism and Hotel Management, Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee
2 Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Haifa
* dalit.gasul@kinneret.ac.il

Involving the community living in proximity to a forest is a basic principle in establishing and managing a ‘community forest’. The Balfour Forest, which surrounds the town of Migdal Ha‘emek, was neglected by the community who felt alienated from it. Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael- Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF, the agency responsible for Israel’s forests), in its efforts to promote the development of ‘community forests’, initiated a process that aimed to engage the local community in developing and taking responsibility for the forest. An additional goal was the creation of a model that could be applied in other KKL-JNF forests.

The process was active over two years (2008–2009), during which community activists were identified, recruited and empowered to create a team of ‘forest trustees’. A comprehensive analysis of the process uncovered major issues relating to public involvement and participation in planning and management processes, and the results can be applied to the development and management of other community forests in Israel:

# Collaboration vs. participation – creating the community forest required a conceptual change within the JNF that had, in essence, to transfer responsibility for the forest to the local community.

# Indifference vs. responsibility – creating the community forest required a conceptual change in the municipality – prioritizing the forest as an urban space worthy of cultivation, assuming long-term fiscal responsibility, and delegating power to the community, via its representatives.

# Involvement vs. attachment – the most significant conceptual change is required from the residents – raising awareness of the importance of the forest, active involvement in managing and maintaining the forest, and creating a feeling of ‘owning’ and experiencing it as both a public and a personal living space.

During the period when the community forest was being established, KKL-JNF and the municipality developed parks, recreation areas, and bicycle and pedestrian trails in the forests surrounding Migdal HaEmek. Some of these projects are the direct results of the forest vision developed with the ‘forest trustees’ group, whose activity considerably strengthened and advanced the community forest project. The group remains unified, active, and very significant in the city’s community and cultural life. This process of community empowerment places the community and its needs at the center, in a model of cooperation that encompasses KKL-JNF, the municipality, and the residents. Consequently, the forest benefits from maintenance, infrastructure renewal and, especially, from embracing by the local residents; they, in turn, gain a feeling of significance and belonging, and enjoy a welcoming forest environment that provides space for recreational activities in nature.

The model for establishing and managing a community forest developed in this study is based on collaboration among KKL-JNF, the Migdal HaEmek municipality and the community.

We suggest that the principles developed during this process may form a model for successful implementation in other communities as well.

Tables and figures available in English in full Hebrew version (PDF below)

Landau Serge Yan (1)*, Abu-Rabia Aref (2), Evlagon David (3) and Abu-Siam Said (4)

1. Department of Natural Resources and Agronomy, Institute of Plant Sciences, Agricultural Research Organization, Bet Dagan, 50250 Israel
2. Department of Middle-East Studies, The Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel
3. Forestry Department, Central Region, KKL-JNF, Eshtaol
4. Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Beer Sheva

* vclandau@agri.gov.il

The grazing pressure of livestock in the planted forests in the KKL-JNF Central and Southern regions is low, so therefore, forest fires area constant hazard. The Forest Authority has adopted seasonal grazing in the forests as a means to reduce this fire hazard. Till 2008 about 15,000 head of sheep and goats (of which the latter form about 10%) owned by Bedouin from the northern Negev grazed the forests each year. In 2009, all herd owners were obliged to keep income tax records as a prerequisite for obtaining a grazing permit, and subsequently the grazing numbers dropped to 2,100 sheep and 300 goats, even though the grazing season was longer in the forest than in the Negev and the cost of supplementary feed significantly lower. The aim of the present research was to determine if there were other factors over and above the tax requirement that were discouraging seasonal grazing in the forests. During 2009 and 2010 all the Bedouin herd owners who grazed in the Central and Southern Regions of the Forest Authority, in addition to five who grazed in the western Negev were interviewed. The average age of the herd owners was 56 years (47–67) and most of them had children who intended to continue managing the herd (Fig. 2). Most of the flocks/herds were from the Dimona-Hura-Arad area, and had a long record of nomadic grazing in the forests of the Central Region (Fig. 1). Nomadism involved splitting the family, because the children were obliged to go to school in the northern Negev. Therefore herd owners with two wives could manage this situation more easily.

The interviews revealed a number of problems, apart from the tax obligation, that deterred the nomads from using the forests; and solving them could increase the profitability of the herd as well as the motivation of the herd owners. These problems include mortality caused by poisonous plants, (tick) fevers, predation, and low night temperatures, all of which affect lambs and kids in particular; as well as transport costs from the Negev to the forests in the Central Region (Figs. 3, 4, 5). In addition the herd owners would appreciate veterinary supervision, improvement of drinking water facilities, extension services for herd management, and better relations between the authorities and the herd owners.

The KKL-JNF and the Ministry of Agriculture implemented the following measures: Owners of goat herds will be given long-term grazing permits for 4 years instead of the current 4-month seasonal grazing permit, whose usefulness is further limited by the requirement to return to the Negev every year. The KKL-JNF has undertaken to set up watering points and to ensure a continuous supply of water; collapsible, mobile, tent-like stock shelters were built and installed for protection against night-time cold in winter (Fig. 7); and herd owners were compensated for herd transport costs. The KKL-JNF has subsidized provision of veterinary supervision and flock/herd management extension services of the Ministry of Agriculture. In 2014, 7,000 sheep and 1,350 goats grazed in the Central Region forests, mainly for maintenance of fire-breaks.

Tables and figures available in English in full Hebrew version (PDF below)

Joseph Riov* (1), Anat Madmoni (2), Leonid Korol (3), Zvi Mendel (3), Rakefet David Schwartz (3), Galina Shklar (3), Ailon Calev (4) and Robert Sitbon (5)
1 Faculty of Agriculture, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot
2 Beit Berl College, Kfar Saba
3 Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Center, Bet Dagan
4 Forest Department, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael – Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF), Eshtaol
5 Southern Region, KKL-JNF, Gilat
* riov@agri.huji.ac.il

Natural hybrids of Pinus brutia × Pinus halepensis were first discovered in Italy in the 1920s and later in Greece. Although there is a phenological barrier between the two species, i.e., their flowering periods do not fully overlap, there is some overlapping between the female flowering of P. brutia and the male flowering of P. halepensis, which enables formation of hybrids. In controlled hybridization performed in Greece it was observed that hybrids could be formed only when P. brutia was the female parent. The growth rate of these hybrids, which were planted in various sites in Greece, was significantly higher than that of the two parents, particularly in inferior sites.

Natural hybrids of P. brutia × P. halepensis were also discovered in various forests in Israel, in light of their exceptional dimensions.

These hybrids appear in pure stands of P. brutia or in mixed stands of the two parents, whose seed sources were imported to Israel from abroad, probably from Greece. Several research programs in Israel have addressed various characteristics of these hybrids, focusing particularly on morphological, biochemical, and molecular markers for their identification.
Recently, a new method, Cleaved Amplified Polymorphic Sequencing has been successfully employed for identification of the hybrids. Local natural hybrids also occur in several sites in Israel.

Controlled hybridization between P. brutia and P. halepensis performed in Greece and Israel revealed that the proportion of hybrids exhibiting heterosis was very low. These results clearly show that in practice it would not be possible to produce the hybrids by using seeds originated from controlled pollination; it would be preferable to use vegetative propagation to produce seedlings from the successful hybrids that appear in the forests. A method for vegetative propagation of pines, including hybrids, was developed in Israel; it also enables propagation of mature cuttings that are usually difficult to root.

However, for mass propagation it would be necessary to utilize other methods, such as rooting cuttings developed from needle fascicles (brachiblasts) following pruning or somatic embryogenesis. In experiments conducted in Israel, hybrids of P. brutia × P. halepensis proved to be highly resistant to Matsucoccus josephi, but their resistance was somewhat lower than that of P. brutia.

The climate changes, particularly the long drought periods that occurred in recent years in Israel, and the resulting mortality of P. halepensis trees, require the utilization of drought-resistant species.

The exceptional development of hybrids in stands in various regions in Israel, including the northern Negev, indicate that they are suitable for this purpose. This topic is currently being investigated.

Tables and figures available in English in full Hebrew version (PDF below)

Estie Yankelevitch, Land of Israel Studies, University of Haifa
estiyan@gmail.com

The communal village of Kfar Hittim, located in the eastern Lower Galilee, was first established as a Moshav Ovdim (workers’ village) in 1923, on land purchased by the Jewish National Fund in 1905, in its first land transaction. Kfar Hittim was initiated by the Mizrachi movement and supported by the World Zionist Organization but, nevertheless, this first experiment failed because of a lack of harmony amongst the inexperienced members, and because of the shortage of water. The settlers left the place in the early 1930s and in December 1936 a newgroup of immigrants from Bulgaria resettled the place as a communal
settlement – an innovative pattern at that time. Its members created a new framework, which combined their cooperative ideology with the individual lifestyle of the Moshav Ovdim.

Richard Kaufman, the Zionist Executive’s architect and settlement planner was asked to redesign his original plan of the village. The new plan integrated the economic structures of the kibbutz and the social structure of the moshav.

Kfar Hittim was also the first settlement built as a tower and stockade settlement, the Jewish response to the Arab rebellion in 1936.

Tables and figures available in English in full Hebrew version (PDF below)

Omri Bonneh and Roi Har’el, Chief Scientist, KKL-JNF, Eshtaol
Omrib@kkl.org.il

 

The geographical extent of the Sharon stretches from the Yarkon River in the south to the Taninim stream in the north, and from the Mediterranean seashore in the west to the Samaria foothills in the east. There are references to the ancient forest of the Sharon going back to the biblical era, such as Joshua’s remark to Josef’s sons, of whom Menashe occupied the Sharon area: “if thou be a great people, get thee up to the forest, and cut down for thyself there…” (Joshua 17:15).