gazelles, partridges, songbirds, butterflies, herbaceous vegetation and woody vegetation. Climate data are collected from a meteorological station located in the park. The data collected for the long-term will be collated into an online database and serve as baseline data for future studies.

Long-term monitoring at Ramat Hanadiv has two main aims: scientific and applicable. Our objective is that a combination of monitoring and management will allow us, over the long term, to conserve and enrich the diversity of species, communities, landscapes and processes that characterise the Mediterranean landscape in the park; to develop new methods for research, monitoring and management, so that the park will serve as a model for open landscape management in the Mediterranean region; to build models for predicting the expected temporal and spatial changes in the ecosystem; and to strengthen the link between scientific research and education and public awareness through increasing accessibility to the research results on the internet and educating for scientific thinking by involving students in research.

Recognising the importance of a long-term vision has also affected the short-term studies being performed at Ramat Hanadiv. Data recording, for example, is performed according to accepted standards, so that data from short-term studies can be saved for the long term and used for synthesis and comparisons.

More than 15 years of long-term research at Ramat Hanadiv have taught us that significant data collection is question- and aim-oriented, and emphasised the importance of data analysis, its assimilation in management, and an ability to deal with the conclusions. Together with these insights, our recognition that values and worldviews affect considerations and decisions became sharper, and the need to include the human component in the monitoring programme became clearer.