Leader: Yoav Sagi
Contributed by Yoav Sagi
Name: Yoav Sagi
Job: Founder and Director of Israel's Open Landscape Institute (OLI)
Where do you work? Israel
Degree(s): Biology and Ecology Studies from The Hebrew University and Tel Aviv Universityand UC Berkeley.
Area(s) of expertise:
Nature and environmental conservation including ethics, ecology and practical implementation and leadership; strategic planning on local, regional, national and international levels; land-use and conservation planning, implementation and management on local, regional, national and international levels.
What inspires you in your work?
The very existence of natural beauty, the challenge of presenting these "speechless" resources and the need to save them, and the evidence that by dedication and insistence and professionalism it is possible to make a difference.
What are the highlights of your career accomplishments?
I have been involved in and led numerous critical environmental campaigns in Israel, including fighting to protect the last of the Mediterranean coastal dunes. For 25 years (1980-2005) I led a campaign to save the last sand dunes south of the city of Ashdod. This involved changes in existing national, regional and local building plans, establishment of an educational center and public demonstrations that finally ended in the declaration of this area as a nature reserve.
In 1973 I established and was the director of the nature conservation department of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), the largest environmental body in Israel, and between 1977 and 1984 I served as the executive director of the SPNI and between 1989 and 1998 as the chairman of SPNI's Executive Board.
Since 1991 I am concentrating in the preservation of Israel's last remaining open spaces through Israel’s Open Landscape Institute (OLI). The OLI has developed policy principles and tools for sustainable development that ensure conservation and management of open areas and their natural and cultural values. The OLI is an important meeting point for academics, planners, officials and elected representatives in local and regional councils as well as for legislators, and is well recognized as an important land management entity in Israel.
Why is the Global Mediterranean Action Network exciting to you?
Collaboration among conservationists and scientists is always an important and strengthening instrument; collaboration among Mediterranean conservationists who are facing similar conditions and challenges are even more important. The Global Mediterranean Action Network could be an excellent vehicle for collecting and analyzing data and for sharing experiences gained in the different Mediterranean-type ecosystems and bring about better understanding and awareness that will lead toward better preservation of one of the most important and highly endangered biomes.
How did your early experiences in nature influence you?
The (relatively) vast open areas with carpets of wild flowers and graceful gazelles that shaped my childhood landscape images" and the fast disappearance of theses values from our environment are the very reason for dedicating my career to conservation.
What are your favorite landscapes?
High mountains and vast open areas like deserts, woodlands and open farming land are among my favorite landscapes.
What gives you hope?
People often ask me if I am an optimist or a pessimist in regard to the chances to win the conservation "battle." My answer is that I am neither of these. Facing reality I have no choice but to look at the world with bitter pessimism in this regard, but I always act as an optimist since first of all, the situation could always be even worse and secondly, this is only one chance to make a difference. Conservation experiences from around the world shows that if one acts in this way it is possible that to win environmental campaigns that in the beginning might look like a lost cause.
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