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

Orcas team up with dolphins to hunt salmon, study finds

Northern resident killer whales appear to use dolphins as ‘scouts’, in a surprising cooperative hunting strategy
Orcas and dolphins have been spotted for the first time working as a team to hunt salmon off the coast of British Columbia, according to a new study which suggests a cooperative relationship between the two predators.
The research, published on Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports, shows interactions between northern resident orcas (also known as killer whales) and Pacific white-sided dolphins are not just chance encounters while foraging.
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Will net zero really cost UK households £500 a year?

An official report lays out different scenarios for the cost of transitioning away from fossil fuels to net zero by 2050
Britain’s official energy system operator has attempted to work out what achieving net zero carbon emissions will cost, with its figures showing surging spending in the coming years.
The scale and speed of the shift to a low-carbon economy, and how to fund it, are hotly debated by political parties.
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Economic growth no longer linked to carbon emissions in most of the world, study finds

Analysis marking 10 years since Paris climate agreement underscores effectiveness of strong government policies
The once-rigid link between economic growth and carbon emissions is breaking across the vast majority of the world, according to a study released ahead of Friday’s 10th anniversary of the Paris climate agreement.
The analysis, which underscores the effectiveness of strong government climate policies, shows this “decoupling” trend has accelerated since 2015 and is becoming particularly pronounced among major emitters in the global south.
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MP calls for ban on ‘biobeads’ at sewage works after devastating Camber Sands spillage

Exclusive: Use of toxic plastic beads in treatment works is unnecessary and outdated, say conservationists
The use of tiny, toxic plastic beads at sewage works should be banned nationwide, an MP and wildlife experts have said after a devastating spill at an internationally important nature reserve.
Hundreds of millions of “biobeads” washed up on Camber Sands beach in East Sussex last month, after a failure at a Southern Water sewage treatment works caused a catastrophic spill. It has distressed and alarmed local people and conservationists, as not only are the beads unsightly but they pose a deadly threat to wildlife.
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Country diary: A lifelong love affair with common scoters | Mary Montague

Tyrella Beach, County Down: These fine ducks are tricky to spot from the shore, but I feel lucky to be seeing them at all
The common scoter has long haunted the edges of my mind. I think of this handsome duck migrating from its summer breeding grounds in the boreal lakelands of Scandinavia. I watch for the tattered ribbons of its flight formations arriving to winter along this coast. I scrutinise the sea for flocks far offshore.
Because even here in Dundrum Bay, where large winter flocks gather, any sighting is hit and miss. Scoters’ flocking behaviour is reinforced by the patchy distribution of their mollusc prey. The ducks congregate over shellfish beds, diving from the surface to seize an individual shellfish, which they then swallow whole, to digest – shell and all – in their powerful gizzards. But as a flock drifts and flies from bed to bed, from my perspective on the beach, the birds easily dissolve into a vast and moving sea.
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Snakes, spiders and rare birds seized by Border Force in month-long operation

Wildlife smuggling is serious organised crime that ‘fuels corruption and drives species to extinction’, Home Office says
More than 250 endangered species and illegal wildlife products were seized at the UK border in a single month, new figures have revealed, including spiders, snakes and birds.
The illicit cargo was uncovered as part of an annual crackdown on wildlife smuggling known as Operation Thunder, which is led by Interpol and the World Customs Organisation.
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Sea urchin species on brink of extinction after marine pandemic

Ecologically important Diadema africanum almost eliminated by unknown disease in Canary Islands
A marine pandemic is bringing some species of sea urchin to the brink of extinction, and some populations have disappeared altogether, a study has found.
Since 2021, Diadema africanum urchins in the Canary Island archipelago have almost entirely been killed by an unknown disease. There has been a 99.7% population decrease in Tenerife, and a 90% decrease off the islands of the Madeira archipelago.
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As the UK looks to invest in nuclear, here’s what it could mean for Britain’s environment

In this week’s newsletter: The government’s bid to speed up nuclear construction could usher in sweeping deregulation, with experts warning of profound consequences for nature
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When UK prime minister Keir Starmer announced last week that he was “implementing the Fingleton review”, you can forgive the pulse of most Britons for failing to quicken.
But behind the uninspiring statement lies potentially the biggest deregulation for decades, posing peril for endangered species, if wildlife experts are to be believed, and a likely huge row with the EU.
2025 ‘virtually certain’ to be second- or third-hottest year on record, EU data shows
Just 0.001% hold three times the wealth of the poorest half of humanity, report finds
‘Even the animals seem confused’: a retreating Kashmir glacier is creating an entire new world in its wake
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Endoscopy finds Neanderthal noses not as adapted to the cold as expected

Study on skull of Altamura Man could be blow to adaptation theories about Neanderthals and their extinction
One sign of a really cold day is the sharp sting of freezing air in your nose. It was believed that the noses of Neanderthals were better adapted to breathing the cold air of the Ice Age and that when the climate became warmer they were outcompeted by modern humans. This is now being questioned.
The opening in the Neanderthal skull is bigger than ours, with a larger nasal cavity behind it. This was thought to have bony convolutions to warm and moisten the incoming air, similar to those seen on some arctic mammals. These delicate structures would only survive in an exceptionally well-preserved skull though, so it was never clear whether they were actually present.
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A dead whale shows up on your beach. What do you do with the 40-ton carcass?

A fin whale washed ashore in Anchorage and was left there for months. Then a self-described ‘wacko’ museum director made a plan
When a whale dies, its body descends to the bottom of the deep sea in a transformative phenomenon called a whale fall. A whale’s death jump-starts an explosion of life, enough to feed and sustain a deep-ocean ecosystem for decades.
There are a lot of ways whales can die. Migrating whales lose their way and, unable to find their way back from unfamiliar waters, are stranded. They can starve when prey disappears or fall to predators such as orcas. They become bycatch, tangled in fishing lines and nets. Mass whale deaths have been linked to marine heatwaves and the toxic algae blooms that follow.
Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Flu surge a challenge for NHS 'unlike any' since pandemic, Streeting says

The health secretary also warns planned strikes by resident doctors next week could be the "Jenga piece that collapses" the NHS.
Flu in four charts - how this year's winter outbreak is different

NHS England says it's facing a "worst-case scenario" after flu hospital cases jump 55% in a week.
Doctor wrote off my hair loss and dizziness as 'just being a tired mum'

Iron deficiency is a relatively common problem, especially in women. Here's how to spot the symptons.
Flu wave hits England's busiest A&E - hundreds of patients are arriving a day

The BBC visits Leicester Royal Infirmary to witness first-hand how it's coping with an early surge in cases of winter bugs.
Streeting confirms public inquiry into NHS trust

The TEWV announcement comes after calls from families of three patients who died by suicide.
Last-minute offer may avert strike by resident doctors

Deal put forward by ministers includes rapid expansion of training posts, but no promises on pay.
Campaigners question ethics of puberty-blocker trial in legal letter to Streeting

Researchers and the UK regulator say the study is going to help improve care for children questioning their gender.
Why is flu so bad this winter - and should you buy a vaccine?

Flu has come early this year, and experts predict it could be a particularly nasty season.
Private flu vaccine stocks running low as cases rise

Those eligible for a vaccine can access jabs from the NHS, but experts say that people have turned to pharmacies for convenience.
Ambulance demand spikes as flu season worsens

The service says calls increased by 20% in the past week, fuelled by illnesses such as the flu.

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