Eco Hvar

ECO HVAR: AIMS AND ACTIVITIES OF THE CHARITY

Environment

Eco Hvar's aims for environmental protection, and related articles.

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Health

Eco Hvar's ideas for encouraging positive health, plus related articles

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Animals

Eco Hvar's aims for protecting animals and improving animal welfare, plus related articles

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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.

 

 

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Eco Environment News feeds

  • UK ‘built for climate that no longer exists’ and needs urgent changes to survive global heating, report warns

    Landmark report calls for widespread air conditioning and says UK temperatures forecast to exceed 40C by 2050

    British homes will need air conditioning to survive predicted levels of global heating, the government’s climate advisers have warned in a report, as measures such as drawing curtains, opening windows and growing trees for shade are not likely to be enough.

    Air conditioning should be installed in all care homes and hospitals within the next 10 years, and in all schools within 25 years, according to the Climate Change Committee (CCC), which published a major report on adapting to the impacts of global heating on Wednesday.

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  • The English community that brought its river back from the brink: ‘If we can get it right here, we can do it everywhere’

    For 150 years, the Mease had been altered by human hands, which destroyed habitats. But in 2013, a restoration project began – and now its wetlands are abuzz with wildlife

    ‘A noisy river is a healthy river,” says Ruth Needham of the Trent Rivers Trust (TRT). The Mease in the Midlands must be in fine fettle, then, as it gurgles merrily along. Sunlight glints off riffles in the water and shoals of fry dart past. Needham whips out her phone to video the tiny fish: “My colleagues will be jumping for joy to see them!”

    Needham has good reason to be buoyant. Last month, the Mease won the UK River prize 2026 – which was established by the River Restoration Centre in 2014 to acknowledge innovative projects –in recognition of the trust’s 13-year restoration campaign. “The prize has been a massive boost,” says Needham. “If we can get the Mease into better condition, we can improve other rivers, too.”

    ‘We wanted to get people to work together’ … Ruth Needham of the Trent Rivers Trust

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  • Blinded and broken, Sunny the owl becomes another casualty of Russia’s war

    Ukrainians lament appalling toll of fighting on their country’s bird population

    Russia sent kamikaze drones to attack the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia in February. They hit buildings and killed several people. One unreported victim of the bombardment was a male long-eared owl, blinded in one eye and found with a badly broken wing. A passerby scooped up the stunned bird, put him in a box and took him to the city of Dnipro.

    The owl – nicknamed Sunny – is now recovering in a cosy room belonging to Veronica Konkova. No longer able to fly or hunt, Sunny instead hops around.

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  • Rachel Reeves to protect ‘critical’ clean energy projects from legal challenges

    Chancellor’s planning shake-up would ‘reduce exposure from judicial review on all but human rights grounds’

    Rachel Reeves is ​preparing to announce a planning shake-up ‌that would fast-track clean energy ​and infrastructure projects by curbing judicial reviews, the ​Treasury has said.

    The chancellor will propose that parliament should be able to designate and approve the most important clean energy projects as of “critical national importance”, as part of a wider package seeking to soften the economic blow from the Iran crisis.

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  • Collecting pollen can be as exhausting for bees as flight take-off, study shows

    ‘Floral buzzing’, the vibrations bees use to shake pollen loose from flowers, takes more energy than previously thought

    Bees use as much energy collecting pollen through “floral buzzing” as they do taking off in flight, a study shows.

    Scientists have found the vibrations bumblebees use to shake pollen loose from flowers are among the most exhausting behaviours they perform, forcing bees to “carefully choose” which flowers are worth visiting.

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  • Spending watchdog warns £38bn cost of Sizewell C nuclear plant is ‘risky’

    National Audit Office says potential benefits are ‘considerable but uncertain’ while risks are ‘immediate and substantial’

    The cost of the government’s £38bn nuclear plant in Suffolk is subject to “significant uncertainty” and may outweigh the benefits for UK households until at least 2064, according to the government’s spending watchdog.

    The National Audit Office (NAO) has warned that although the potential benefits of the Sizewell C nuclear plant are considerable, they remain uncertain. The risks, however, are “immediate, substantial and borne by the public”.

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  • Rainforests pushed to breaking point by new demands for resources, report says

    Need for minerals, biofuels and pulp adding to pressures from ranching, monocrops, oil and logging, analysis finds

    The growing extraction of rainforest resources is pushing the Amazon and similar biomes towards breaking point, a report has shown.

    Fresh demands for critical minerals, biofuels and pulp – used in fast fashion, processed food and packaging – are compounding existing pressures from cattle ranching, monocrops, oil and logging, the analysis finds.

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  • Eva v Goliath: the 20-year-old climate activist taking on Trump and the fossil fuel industry

    Young Americans are suing the president for violating rights with executive orders that fuel the climate crisis

    Eva Lighthiser was at a dorm party on her Colorado college campus last month when she had to call it an early night.

    “I said, ‘Hey, I’ve got to go to bed, I’m flying out to Portland tomorrow,’ and then of course follow-up questions get raised,” she said. “I’m like, ‘Well, it’s a lot to explain.’”

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  • Plantwatch: how goat’s rue inspired super drug for everything from diabetes to obesity

    Galegine compound in plant formed blueprint for metformin drug, but without the toxic side-effects

    Goat’s rue or French lilac, Galega officinalis, is a wild plant and often grown in gardens for its clusters of attractive lilac or white flowers. For a long time the plant was also used to treat diabetes. Its key ingredient was later identified as galegine, which lowers blood glucose levels but has toxic side-effects.

    Eventually galegine led to the development of the synthetic drug metformin, now the classic treatment for treating diabetes by controlling blood sugar. Metformin has none of the toxic side effects of galegine and is now one of the most prescribed drugs in the world. But for many years metformin was vilified and banned in many countries because of its association with galegine.

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  • ‘Should we leave them to die?’ The battle over how to save orangutans from the curse of palm oil

    As new settlers clear their forest habitat, the apes are coming into conflict with humans. But simply moving them to another part of the forest may not be the answer

    The banana skins were an ominous sign. As was the branch that had been broken off to get to the fruit. Had Edi Ramliwalked into the forest, he might have seen scattered balls of bark that had been ripped off trees, chewed like gum, then spat out. It takes a powerful jaw to do that. Closer to Edi’s home, there was an intricate construction of bent and broken branches high in a tree. The nest.

    It was October, the fruiting season. The pile of half-eaten bananas was less than a minute’s walk from where Edi and his family slept. He felt nervous. He got on with his day. He picked sweetcorn and sold it at the market. He bought a carton of chocolate milk and biscuits for his grandson. He and his wife, Siti Munawaroh, ran the farm with their three adult children. They prepped the land, sowed seeds, tended crops. Survival depended on what they could grow.

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