Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel

Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (Hebrew: החברה להגנת הטבע‎, HaHevra LeHaganat HaTeva), or SPNI, is an Israeli non-profit environmental organization working to preserve plants, animals, and natural environments that represent bio-diversity, by protecting the lands and waters needed for their survival, and is Israel's oldest and largest conservation organization.

History

SPNI was founded in 1953 by Azaria Alon and Amotz Zahavi in response to plans to drain the Hula Valley. The Israeli government and the JNF ultimately did drain a majority of the Hula wetlands to prevent the spread of malaria and to create agricultural land. After 40 years of SPNI campaigning, some 10% of the Hula wetlands were re-flooded in the early 1990s.

In 1980, SPNI, together with Azaria Alon, Amotz Zahavi and Yoav Sagi, was awarded the Israel Prize for its special contribution to society and the State for the environment.

Major divisions

Best known to the public for sponsoring hikes (today, SPNI's hikes are guided in Hebrew - the only regular nature tours in English are through SPNI-Jerusalem branch), SPNI is also active in political and environmental improvement efforts. Projects have included working out an agricultural management plan for the Hula Valley to insure the health of migrating common cranes, and preventing the draining of a large area of salt pans, the last breeding site in Israel for Nubian nightjars. The campaign to create the 2004 Coastal Law, which forbids new development in any area within 300 meters from the coastline was a notable accomplishment. With almost 800 employees, SPNI is an enormous non-profit organization, with a wide range of activities, thus SPNI is known as well by its various divisions' names as it is by the name "SPNI".