Abstract . – Natural corridors or patches in man made habitats are considered important landscape components for animal conservation management. I tested this hypothesis in northern hills of Israel, surveying ant nesting in three habitats: Mediterranean shrub steppe (bata), artificial planted pine stands and unmanaged firebreak bands in pine stands, newly covered with natural bata plants. For this purpose I surveyed twice five sites in the Northern region of Israel for a total of 75 quadrats, each 80-meter square. I detected ant nests in each quadrat by digging soil at 5 cm deep, turning up stones and splitting stumps of hewn trees. I found 102 nests belonging to 19 ant species representing 8% of total ant species living in Israel. Ant species showed high specialization for one of the habitats: twelve species were found in only one habitat, two species in two of them and only five species in three. The Shannon Biodiversity Index was not different in each habitat; however, I found higher similarity (Morisita-Horn Index) between firebreak and bata assemblages than between those in firebreaks and pine forests, showing that bata ants found in the firebreaks appropriated habitat for nesting. Given that ant assemblages correlate with the composition of other component of invertebrate fauna, these unmanaged firebreaks should have an important place in regional conservation policy and forest management.