Azaria Alon, Israel’s “Mr. Nature,” was born in 1918 in Wollodarsk, Ukraine, and has lived in Israel since 1925. Since 1938, Azaria has been a member of Kibbutz Beit Hashita. He has been an agricultural worker, a youth movement leader, an educator and teacher of biology. In 1951, he became one of the founders of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), which is now a leading power in environmental campaigns in Israel. He took a major part in the campaign to save the wildflowers of Israel (since 1964).
He has also been active in creating the Governmental Nature Reserves Authority (a member of its board from 1964 to 1976); mapping the nature reserves and national parks of Israel (1951–1965); numerous campaigns to save the wildlife and environment; General Secretary of SPNI from 1969 to 1977; taking a major part in education, especially in creating the network of Field Study Centers; the editor of SPNI publications; member of Life & Environment; taking part in the Stockholm Convention in 1972 and IUCN conferences from 1963 to 1990.
Since 1951, Azaria has been writing, lecturing and broadcasting on conservation of Nature and Environment, in an effort to raise the public consciousness towards those subjects.
