Eco Hvar - home for ecology on Hvar Island in Croatia

Welcome to the Eco-Hvar website

Welcome to the Eco-Hvar website!

Hvar Island on the Dalmatian coast in Croatia is one of the most beautiful places in the world. It has the makings of a paradise on earth. Islanders have long boasted of the clean air and sea, the pristine natural environment and the healthy lifestyle based on a good diet and outdoor living.

*Clear sea in Hvar harbour, July 2014. Photo: Vivian Grisogono*

Tourism is the island’s main economic activity. Hvar Town established the first professional tourist organization in Europe when the Hvar Health Society (Higijeničko društvo Hvar) was founded way back in 1868 under the leadership of Bishop Juraj Duboković. The Society’s aim was to attract guests to Hvar Town who could benefit from the climate, especially the mild winter, and the clean air. These ‘health tourists’ were well looked after by all accounts, with good food and healthy activities. They provided the foundation for Hvar’s enduring successful tourist industry.

The style of tourism has changed over the years. The basis of Hvar Island’s attractions remains the same. Many people still come to visit or stay here in order to enjoy the clean air, sea and countryside. No-one is disappointed in the natural beauty of the place. There are also other attractions, including the island's rich and colourful history and cultural heritage, not to mention the good food and high quality wines.

However, the island is not perfect. Certain aspects could and should be changed. There is a surprisingly high incidence of smoking- and diet-related illnesses on the island, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and lung problems. The doctors also have to deal with thyroid and hormonal disturbances, especially in young girls, and cancers in all age groups. The indications are that islanders need a better understanding of healthy lifestyle habits, also a clearer knowledge of the downside of using chemical pesticides and fertilizers.

For animal-lovers, the treatment of animals also gives cause for concern. There is no animal rescue facility on the island, and refuges for dogs and cats are urgently needed so proper care can be provided for homeless animals.

The registered not-for-profit charity Eco Hvar was founded in 2013 to help improve conditions for people, animals and the environment. You can read details of the charity's aims in each category on these links: Environment, Health, Animals. The overall ideal aim is to create a true earthly paradise on the exquisite Island of Hvar.

Eco Hvar is pleased to co-operate with like-minded organizations, and is a member of PAN Europe, and LAG Škoji, and a supporter of Zemljane staze - Earth Trek (Facebook page), Održivi otok ('Sustainable Island') (Facebook page), Dignitea (Facebook page) and Pokret otoka ('Island Movement')..

For comprehensive research and strategies for environmental protection, we follow and strongly recommend The Nature-based Solutions Initiative, which operates from the UK University of Oxford Departments of Biology and Geography.

The Eco-Hvar website contains original articles, information, references and links in keeping with the aims of Eco Hvar. All the material on the website is copyright, including the illustrations and photographs, and may not be reproduced or published in any form except with the copyright holders' written permission. However, you are welcome to copy or print out any of the articles for personal use only. For day-by-day topics of interest in keeping with Eco Hvar's aims, you can follow us on Facebook.

Media

For the Good of All!

Better Ways

Nature Watch

Highlights

About Animals

Forum items

Notices

Poisons Beware!

Donations

Donations can be made in euros, pounds sterling, US and Australian dollars and Swiss francs. All donations, however small, are very welcome. We acknowledge donations by email if we have the donor's address. Please let us know if you require a formal paper receipt.

PLEASE NOTE OUR NEW BANK DETAILS:

ECO HVAR BANK DETAILS

OTP banka d.d. Split, Domovinskog rata 61, 21000 Split;

Poslovnica Jelsa, 21465 Jelsa.

IBAN HR7024070001100727245; BIC OTPVHR2X
Account name: ECO HVAR

Account address: Pitve 93, 21465 Jelsa, Croatia

If the payment slip has a box for 'further details' or 'further information' you should enter the Charity's OIB: 14009858487, and state 'donation' or 'donacija'.

About The Site

The site contains articles and information on topics related to health, the environment and animal welfare.

While the focus is on Hvar Island in Dalmatia, much of the information is relevant to the rest of Croatia, and some to Europe, the United States and the rest of the world.

The main language of the site is English, but articles in Croatian are being added as quickly as possible. Some of the Croatian articles are translations, some original. Book reviews are in the language of the publication being reviewed.

To see all the articles archived in each category, click on the category name which is given below the title of each article (Environment, Highlights, Notices etc).

For further relevant news items and bits of interesting information, please refer to our Facebook page.

Thanks

We are very grateful to Željka Horvat Kozulić for kindly and expertly designing the ECO HVAR logo, also to Jelena Bunčuga, Petra Mimica, Bartul Mimica, Ivana Župan, Dinka Barbić and Josip Vlainić for their generous help in translating articles into Croatian.

Special thanks are also owed to Mihael Magdić of Orion Informatika i Trgovina, Varaždin, for his excellent and patient efforts in designing the website.

Eco Environment News feeds

‘Something is working’: UN climate chief optimistic about green transition

Exclusive: Simon Stiell believes economic benefits will compel countries to speed up climate action
Cleaning up industry and the global economy will produce massive economic dividends for countries that grasp the opportunity – as the example of China has shown, the UN climate chief has said, before a crunch summit of world leaders this week.
In a last-ditch call to heads of government summoned to New York by the UN secretary general this week, Simon Stiell, the executive secretary of the UN framework convention on climate change, said governments would almost certainly fail to come up with the climate commitments needed to fulfil the Paris agreement before a deadline this month, but they could still reset their economies to reap the advantages of low-carbon growth.
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‘It’s resurrection’: 1,000-year-old seeds could grow ancient plants in England’s ice-age ghost ponds

An expert team are resurrecting ice age ponds and finding rare species returning from a ‘perfect time capsule’
If you glanced into a green field and saw a yellow digger tearing into the turf, you might assume it was another site for new houses. But the two circle-shaped scars of dark soil on a Norfolk pasture are ghost ponds being brought back to life by an innovative and cheap form of nature restoration.
“It looks awful now. ‘What have they done? It’s a disaster!’” says Carl Sayer, a professor of geography at UCL, who is dancing with glee around the bleak-looking, freshly dug hole. “The colonisation is so quick. Within a year, it is full of water plants. Within two years, it looks like it’s been there forever. It’s a spectacular recovery, and you’re truly recovering ancient assemblages of plants.”
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Ministers tell Environment Agency to wave planning applications through

Exclusive: Officials say they have been told to do as little as legally possible to prevent approvals for housebuilding
The Environment Agency has been told by ministers to wave through planning applications with minimal resistance as part of a regulatory shakeup designed to increase economic growth and plug the government’s financial hole.
Officials at the agency say they have been told to do as little as legally possible to prevent housing applications from being approved and the government has drafted in senior advisers from the housing department to speed up the process.
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Red squirrel population thriving on Isle of Wight and could almost double, study finds

Researchers mapping how red squirrels would fare under climate breakdown scenarios found ‘a natural ability to adapt’
Red squirrels are thriving on the Isle of Wight where they have enough food and a suitable habitat to support a population that could almost double, a study has found.
Using climate models, the researchers mapped how the red squirrel population would fare under different climate breakdown scenarios such as temperature changes and low levels of rainfall, finding no direct impact on their survivability and “a natural ability to adapt to a range of climatic conditions”.
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‘You could drink from that pond’: the city digging for a solution to toxic runoff

A project in Brighton to stop harmful chemicals from seeping into a chalk aquifer could set an example for managing such pollution
“The designer claims that you could drink the water from there,” says Nick Bean, an engineer for the local council, at a large shallow basin in a nature reserve in Brighton. It is a blazing summer day and a group of researchers, engineers, students and a city councillor, dressed in hi-vis clothing and safety goggles, are gathered at the site of the city’s new and ambitious project to help manage the toxic problem of road runoff.
After six years, the Wild Park rainscape, formed of a vegetated swale linked to four planted basins, is at the tail end of development. Dry and golden beneath the sun, the landscape, if all goes well, will soon teem with lush greenery and wildlife. But it will also be performing a much more critical function: filtering pollutants from runoff to prevent them from seeping into the precious chalk aquifer that lies beneath the city.
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‘A defining moment’: Trinidad and Tobago at a crossroads as oil runs out

Fossil fuels made the nation prosperous but as reserves dwindle, do they drill deeper, even as the Caribbean feels the heat of the climate crisis, or shift to a greener economy?
In 1930, Trinidad and Tobago produced more than 40% of the British empire’s oil. By the 1970s, the newly independent republic was producing 278,000 barrels of crude oil a day. For a country of just 1 million people, after the collapse of its sugar and cocoa industries, oil proved to be transformative.
Today, with a population of 1.5 million and oil production down to less than 54,000 barrels a day, Trinidad and Tobago is at a crossroads. The country’s only petroleum refinery closed in 2018 due to mismanagement and declining production by the state-owned Petrotrin company. A recent analysisnoted that the energy revenues plummeted 48.4% to $14.7bn (£10.9bn) in the last fiscal year, while non-energy revenues grew by 26% to $32.7bn.
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Country diary: It’s phallic, it smells of death – and it’s good enough to eat | Michael White

Cranbrook, Kent: The wood here suddenly smells of autumn, and the smelliest fungus of all – the common stinkhorn – is also delicious
Autumn is many things: morning mist hanging over the low pasture, swirling flocks of swallows drifting imperceptibly south, the light ripening with the hazelnuts. Under the trees, autumn arrives as a scent; the smell of damp decay, as the summer plants give way to fungi.
To the mycophile, this forest funk is a call to action, a reminder that mycelium in the leaf litter is proliferating and preparing to fruit. And so, as a self-confessed mushroom lover, I find myself, basket in hand, contemplating the scentscape of this shaded woodland. There is something different here, though, a sickly note of rotting flesh amid the background odour. Most would walk on, fearing a macabre scene, but recognising the olfactory calling card of a very special mushroom, I start to search.
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Air pollution can affect how well we sleep, scientists discover

Global metastudy finds long-term exposure to pollutants is linked to shorter or lower-quality rest
Air pollution is affecting how well we sleep, according to the findings of an international evidence review. Dr Junxin Li, of the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, who led the review, said: “For years our team has been studying sleep in older adults living in the Baltimore area. Outdoor air quality may change block-by-block and, in some residences, we noticed exhaust fumes from nearby traffic. This led us to a simple but critical question: could the air older adults breathe indoors – as well as just outside their front door – be influencing how well they sleep?”
Li’s team searched for studies from around the globe. Focusing on people over 45 years old, they found 25 high quality studies since 2015. These looked at 1.2 million people in six countries including China, India, the US and Germany.
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Life in a ‘sinking nation’: Tuvalu’s dreams of dry land – podcast

With sea levels rising, much of the nation’s population is confronting the prospect that their home may soon cease to exist. Where are they going to go?
By Atul Dev. Read by Mikhail Sen
Check out Between Moon Tides documentary at theguardian.com
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Experience: I lived underwater for 100 days

I put myself forward as a human guinea pig to study the effects of long-term sub-aquatic living. Not everyone can say they have befriended a lobster and a shark
My stay in Jules’ Undersea Lodge started in March 2023. The habitat, secured to the bed of a 30ft-deep lagoon in Key Largo, Florida, wasn’t the most comfortable hotel I’ve spent time in, but then I wasn’t there for a holiday. I’m a biomedical researcher and I was there as part of a scientific mission called Project Neptune 100.
The main aim was to research the mental and physical impact on the human body of living in increased atmospheric pressure – 70% higher than at the surface. It was also to study what happens when you leave someone alone in a confined environment for 100 days. The data might have all manner of applications – for future missions to Mars, for example.
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Eco Health News feeds

Ambulance workers arrested after six people die

Two ambulance workers have been arrested over the deaths of six adults, Wiltshire Police have said.
Doctor sexual misconduct hearings too lenient, review suggests

Sanctions for UK doctors guilty of sexual misconduct are too lenient in around a quarter of cases, reports suggest.
Woman unable to breathe through nose after Turkey teeth op

Leanne Abeyance's face is constantly infected after dental work done in Turkey.
Trust apologises for treating A&E patients in cafe

Using the cafe to treat patients "will not be allowed to happen again", the trust's boss says.
Macrons to offer 'scientific evidence' to US court to prove Brigitte is a woman, lawyer says

They have filed a lawsuit against US right-wing influencer Candace Owens who claims the French first lady was born male.
'Shocking' pharmacy chain should be shut down - MP

Some Jhoots pharmacies are accused of not paying staff, as patients face closures and low stock.
AI can forecast your future health – just like the weather

An artificial intelligence model can predict the risk of more than 1,000 diseases, a team of scientists say.
Fourteen NHS trusts' maternity care to be investigated over 'failures'

Families impacted have criticised the review, calling it "not fit for purpose".
Gonorrhoea vaccines served up at Soho's G-A-Y Bar

A leading sexual health clinic is running the drop-in sessions at G-A-Y Bar to boost uptake.
What the NHS can learn from the European country that helped more people survive cancer

Denmark's survival rates record for certain cancers were poor compared to some other wealthy countries. Then it came up with a bold plan

Eco Nature News feeds

Landmark high seas treaty crosses finish line

After decades of negotiation, the high seas treaty is finally reality. The historic agreement will pave the way to protect international waters which face numerous threats.
News spotlight: Deforestation linked to dramatic decline in Amazon rainfall

The Amazon rainforest, known for lush green canopies and an abundance of freshwater, is drying out — and deforestation is largely to blame.
5 ways the ocean keeps our climate in check

The ocean is engine of all life on Earth, but human-driven climate change is pushing it past its limits. Here are five ways the ocean keeps our climate in check — and what can be done to help.
Off Mexico’s coast, divers nab biggest ‘ghost’ yet

In a grueling and delicate dance, a team led by Conservation International removes a massive undersea killer.
Protect wildlife: Buy a print

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. These pictures might be worth even more. An initiative featuring the work of some of the world’s best nature photographers raises money for environmental conservation.
Can these fishermen save a 3,000-year tradition?

In a fishing community in Peru, a small group of fishermen carry on a tradition that dates back to the Incas. But an environmental disaster and modern fishing practices threaten this way of life.
Axolotls are on the brink. Can we bring them back?

A project from Conservation International and a Mexican university offers a glimmer of hope for the critically endangered axolotl.
Where Andes meet Amazon, a new ‘lifeline’ for wildlife

As global temperatures rise, wildlife around the world are on the move, a new protected corridor in one of the planet’s most biodiverse countries aims to help.
Is there a better way to farm shrimp? A new project says yes

The world’s appetite for shrimp has surged — and environmental destruction has followed in its wake. A new program from Conservation International has a solution.
An uprooted people, a legacy of conservation

A new Conservation International study is shedding light on an unsung group and their relationship with nature.

ECO HVAR: AIMS AND ACTIVITIES OF THE CHARITY

Environment

Health

Animals