31.03.2011                      25.Adar ll, 5771

Umwelt:

Gov’t urged to nix sand mining in the Arava dunes

Green Movement leads 11th-hour protest in front of Knesset to save Arava Desert's last remaining dunes.

Israel’s Green Movement held a demonstration Wednesday afternoon in front of the Knesset calling for the government to revoke plans to mine Samar sand dunes, the Arava Desert’s last remaining dunes, which host a variety of animal species unique to that “island” landscape, according to Prof. Alon Tal, head of the group.
“It’s a biodiversity hotspot – because it’s a meeting of three continents,” said Tal, who is also a faculty member at Ben- Gurion University of the Negev’s Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research….