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

National Trust launches fundraiser to help buy land around Cerne Giant

Deal expected to pave way for further scientific study, boost conservation and open up access to Dorset chalk figure
The mystery of when, how and – perhaps most importantly – why a giant naked figure was carved into a dizzyingly steep hillside in the English West Country has been a source of wonder and intrigue for centuries.
Future generations may come closer to solving the puzzle of the Cerne Giant after the National Trust stepped in to buy 340 acres of land around the 55-metre (180ft) figure.
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‘The dinosaurs didn’t know what was coming, but we do’: Marina Silva on what needs to follow Cop30

Exclusive: Brazil’s environment minister talks about climate inaction and the course we have to plot to save ourselves and the planet
Soon after I returned home to Altamira from Cop30, I found myself talking about dinosaurs, meteors and “ambassadors of harm” with Brazil’s environment minister, Marina Silva.
No one in government knows the rainforest better than Marina, as she is best known in Brazil, who was born and raised in the Amazon. No one is more aware of the sacrifices that environmental and land defenders have made than this associate of the murdered activist Chico Mendes. And no one worked harder to raise ambition at Cop30, the first climate summit in the Amazon, than her. So what, I asked, had it achieved?
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More than 520 chemicals found in English soil, including long-banned medical substances

Fertilising arable land with human waste leaves array of toxins that could re-enter food chain, study finds
More than 520 chemicals have been found in English soils, including pharmaceutical products and toxins that were banned decades ago, because of the practice of spreading human waste to fertilise arable land.
Research by scientists at the University of Leeds, published as a preprint in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, found a worrying array of chemicals in English soils. Close to half (46.4%) of the pharmaceutical substances detected had not been reported in previous global monitoring campaigns.
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Reuse and return schemes could help eliminate plastic pollution in 15 years, says report

Pew Charitable Trusts finds plastic pollution will more than double globally by 2040 unless action taken
The 66m tonnes of pollution from plastic packaging that enters the global environment each year could be almost eliminated by 2040 primarily by reuse and return schemes, significant new research reveals.
In the most wide-ranging analysis of the global plastic system, the Pew Charitable Trusts, in collaboration with academics including at Imperial College London and the University of Oxford, said plastic, a material once called revolutionary and modern, was now putting public health, world economies and the future of the planet at risk.
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Scientists uncover surprise origin of wispy cirrus clouds

These delicate cloud systems appear to be seeded by massive atmospheric waves thousands of miles away
Cirrus clouds are our highest clouds; their delicate wispy strands are like an artist’s brushstrokes through the sky. During the day they are bright white and at dawn and dusk they can take on the hues of sunrise and sunset. But how are they made? New research reveals that some cirrus clouds are seeded by storms on the other side of the world, many thousands of miles away. This has implications for global heating as storm patterns shift.
Meteorologists have long recognised two types of cirrus cloud: “anvil” cirrus, which spread out from large storm systems, and “in-situ” cirrus, which seem to form on their own. Telling them apart is tricky, but by applying a new computer analysis to cloud satellite data, researchers spotted that in-situ cirrus emerged in response to major storm systems on the other side of the Earth.
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Country diary: A broken leg and singing crossbills – am I having a strange dream? | Nicola Chester

Inkpen, Berkshire: Drifting in and out of sleep on the woodland floor, I’m in searing pain, but far from alone
It was nobody’s fault, but here I am, lying on the damp floor of a wood, half a mile from the road. Drifting down with the falling leaves are the voices of two women, too easily accepting of blame. I reassure them and try to sit up, but the high singing in my ears turns to static, the edges of the wood begin to pixelate, and I lie down again before I faint.
Moments earlier, deep into Long Copse, Mum’s one-year-old labrador and my two-year-old collie crossbreed had met a young whippet. A case of the zoomies ensued, and as I turned to warn Mum, there was a sledgehammer blow to my lower leg as one, two or maybe all three dogs cannoned into me. Though I didn’t realise for two more days, my leg was broken before I hit the ground.
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The best science and nature books of 2025

From the threat of superintelligent AI to the secrets of a longer life; plus the evolution of language and the restless genius of Francis Crick
This felt like the year that AI really arrived. It is on our phones and laptops; it is creeping into digital and corporate infrastructure; it is changing the way we learn, work and create; and the global economy rests on the stratospheric valuations of the corporate giants vying to control it.
But the unchecked rush to go faster and further could extinguish humanity, according to the surprisingly readable and chillingly plausible If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies (Bodley Head), by computer scientists Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares, which argues against creating superintelligent AI able to cognitively outpace Homo sapiens in all departments. “Even an AI that cares about understanding the universe is likely to annihilate humans as a side-effect,” they write, “because humans are not the most efficient method for producing truths … out of all possible ways to arrange matter.” Not exactly cheery Christmas reading but, as the machines literally calculate our demise, you’ll finally grasp all that tech bro lingo about tokens, weights and maximising preferences.
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Garden ponds provide vital habitats – and a revival is under way in Britain

Even tiny ponds can create biodiversity hotspots, as well as helping out during heatwaves and heavy rain
A few years ago I created a little pond in my back garden. It’s barely bigger than a paving slab, but since the pond has been in place we have had a garden teeming with frogs, hedgehogs have taken up residence and bird life has abounded.
Not only do humble ponds like this give nature a boost; they also help to buffer climate extremes. In recent decades, Britain’s ponds have been disappearing, with research revealing that more than half of our dense network of ponds has been lost since the 1900s. Lucy Clarke and colleagues found that 58% of ponds in the Severn Vale region of the UK had been lost since the 1900s, with the average distance between ponds increasing by 25 metres over that time. Similar trends can be seen worldwide, with intensive agriculture and urbanisation obliterating these seemingly insignificant bodies of water.
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How an invasion of purple flowers made Iceland an Instagram paradise – and caused a biodiversity crisis

Nootka lupins, introduced in the 1940s to repair damaged soil, are rampaging across the island, threatening its native species
It was only when huge areas of Iceland started turning purple that authorities realised they had made a mistake. By then, it was too late. The Nootka lupin, native to Alaska, had coated the sides of fjords, sent tendrils across mountain tops and covered lava fields, grasslands and protected areas.
Since it arrived in the 1940s, it has become an accidental national symbol. Hordes of tourists and local people pose for photos in the ever-expanding fields in June and July, entranced by the delicate cones of flowers that cover the north Atlantic island.
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Rockets, gold and the Foreign Legion: can Europe defend its frontier in the Amazon? | Alexander Hurst

It borders Brazil, but French Guiana is now a remote outpost of the EU. It is home to Europe’s only spaceport, some of the most biodiverse forest on the planet and a military mission that is testing the limits of western power
Above me, a ceiling of rough wooden branches and tarp. To my right, an officer in the French Foreign Legion types up the daily situation report. In front of me a French gendarme named David is standing in front of a table full of large assault rifles, pointing out locations on a paper map. A generator hums. All around us, splotches of forest dot the hundreds of islands that make up the archipelago of Petit-Saut, a watery ecosystem three times the size of Paris.
Except Paris is 7,000 kilometres away from where I am, in Guyane, or French Guiana,a department of France in South America, just north of the equator.
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Eco Health News feeds

Patients clogging A&E with hiccups, sore throats and other niggles

NHS bosses warn the public to use hospitals wisely amid concern this could be a tough winter.
Streeting orders review into mental health and ADHD diagnosis

The health secretary said the aim was to tackle a rising demand for services and the increased pressure on the NHS.
Supermarket loyalty discounts to be allowed on baby formula

The government claims that parents who cannot or chose not to breastfeed could save £500 a year.
Government racks up £100m bill responding to Covid inquiry

BBC analysis shows cost to taxpayer is 50% higher than thought, with inquiry's own costs at £192m.
Warning over cosmetic face fillers as scans reveal new details of risks

Placed incorrectly, cosmetic dermal fillers can damage nearby ateries, leading to to skin loss and even blindness, experts warn.
Streeting brands doctors' union 'moaning minnies' over GP online booking

All NHS practices were required by the government to provide web bookings from October - but the union opposes the move.
Mother wants change so child 'didn't die for nothing'

Sam Tucker says "opportunities were missed" when her daughter Holly, 6, was diagnosed with a tumour.
Doctors to stage five-day strike before Christmas

Walkout in England begins on 17 December and will be 14th strike in pay dispute.
US and UK agree zero tariffs deal on pharmaceuticals

The deal follows threats of tariffs as high as 100% on branded drug imports.
Prostate cancer screening should not be offered to most UK men, say experts

It recommends that only men with a confirmed genetic risk of prostate cancer should be screened for the disease.

Eco Nature News feeds

Candid cameras catch a glimpse of rare wildlife

Deep in the mountains of Palawan, Conservation International scientists are capturing what few people ever see: the secret lives of the Philippines’ rarest species.
How a family farm in the Amazon landed on the world’s best menu

At Maido — the Lima restaurant recently crowned the best in the world — one of the star dishes is paiche, a giant prehistoric river fish.Its journey to the table begins on a small family farm deep in Peru’s Amazon.
‘A profound loss’: Conservation world mourns Jane Goodall

“Jane Goodall forever changed how people think about, interact with and care for the natural world,” said Daniela Raik, interim CEO of Conservation International.
Conservation International expert earns global recognition on TIME100 Next

Conservation International’s Neil Vora was selected for TIME’s Next 100 list — alongside other rising leaders reshaping culture, science and society.
What on Earth is ‘coral bleaching’?

Climate change is happening. And it’s placing the world’s reefs in peril. What can be done?
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.

ECO HVAR: AIMS AND ACTIVITIES OF THE CHARITY

Environment

Health

Animals