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

‘We need to speak collectively’: can parliament solve the problem of ‘deprivation bingo’ in the UK’s seaside towns?

Labour knows it needs to win over the ‘sea wall’ cohort of coastal voters in the next election. But as anger over inequality grows, time is running out
It is a lovely sunny autumn day in Ramsgate on Britain’s Kent coast, and quintessential seaside chippy Peter’s Fish Factory is doing a roaring lunchtime trade. Across the road, at the entrance to the town’s pier, local MP and chair of the newly reformed coastal parliamentary Labour party (PLP), Polly Billington, is having her photo taken.
In between shots she shows us the community art project that adorns the fence along the entrance to the pier. It is made up of pictures, drawn primarily by local children and young people, of the 65 little ships that set sail earlier this year from Ramsgate to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the Dunkirk evacuation.
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Water shortages could derail UK’s net zero plans, study finds

Tensions grow after research in England finds there may not be enough water for planned carbon capture and hydrogen projects
- Revealed: Europe’s water reserves drying up due to climate breakdown
Tensions are growing between the government, the water sector and its regulators over the management of England’s water supplies, as the Environment Agency warns of a potential widespread drought next year.
Research commissioned by a water retailer has found water scarcity could hamper the UK’s ability to reach its net zero targets, and that industrial growth could push some areas of the country into water shortages.
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Country diary: My Black Friday? A night-time skulk in the woods | Nic Wilson

Purwell Ninesprings, Hertfordshire:A chilly evening spent interpreting rustles and admiring the silhouetted trees – now that’s what I call a bargain
I used to regard November as the D month. Dank. Dismal. Dreary. Depressing. That is, until I discovered the Dark. My conversion took place on Black Friday 2019, as I sat alone in a Bedfordshire wood under a sliver of moon.
With eyes slowly acclimatising, I started to pick out night’s nuances – the pale suggestion of leaves underfoot, a glimmer of eyes? What surprised me, though, was the sound. Behind me, the woodland stream continued flowing as loudly and vigorously as by day, yet it seemed incongruous in the darkness, as if the water should be slowing and quietening, preparing to bed down for the night. The irrepressible gushing dispelled any anthropocentric notion that the natural world is a diminished place after dusk.
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Revealed: Europe’s water reserves drying up due to climate breakdown

Exclusive: UCL scientists find large swathes of southern Europe are drying up, with ‘far-reaching’ implications
Vast swathes of Europe’s water reserves are drying up, a new analysis using two decades of satellite data reveals, with freshwater storage shrinking across southern and central Europe, from Spain and Italy to Poland and parts of the UK.
Scientists at University College London (UCL), working with Watershed Investigations and the Guardian, analysed 2002–24 data from satellites, which track changes in Earth’s gravitational field.
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‘We had to swim to safety. I didn’t think we would make it out alive’: the people fleeing climate breakdown – in pictures

Photographers Mathias BraschlerandMonika Fischercapture the families, farmers and fishers who have been forced to leave their homes by extreme weather – and the landscapes they left behind. Introduction by Dina Nayeri
In 2009, Swiss photographers Mathias Braschler and Monika Fischer set out to document the people suffering the first shocks of the climate crisis. They had just returned from China, where rapid, unregulated development has ravaged the natural landscapes. Back home, though, the debate still felt strangely theoretical. “In 2009, you still had people who denied climate change,” Braschler recalls. “People said, ‘This is media hype.’” So the couple, working with the Global Humanitarian Forum in Geneva and supported by Kofi Annan, began The Human Face of Climate Change, a portrait series that showed the people on the frontline of a warming world.
Sixteen years later, climate change is no longer up for debate; the urgent discussions now revolve around solutions. Braschler and Fischer, too, have shifted their focus. “This is going to be one of the central issues for humanity,” says Braschler, “and we want to make sure that people know that the major effect of climate change will be displacement.”
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At least 8,000 illegal waste sites in UK, research suggests

Exclusive: Concerns over impact on health and environment, as well as £1.63bn in avoided landfill tax
The UK is estimated to have at least 8,000 illegal waste sites, containing approximately 13m tonnes of rubbish, research has revealed.
The scale of the criminal dumping means at least £1.63bn of landfill taxes have been avoided, according to an analysis of data from the satellite company Air & Space Evidence, shared with the Guardian and Watershed Investigations.
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Scientists warn of severe climate-related risks to UK economy and security

Experts lay out scale of changes needed in ‘first-of-its-kind national emergency briefing’ in Westminster
A host of eminent scientists have warned politicians, business and community leaders that the UK risks severe climate-related risks to its economy, public health, food systems and national security.
According to its organisers more than 1,000 corporate bosses, senior civil servants and civic leaders were set to assemble in the Methodist central hall in Westminster for the “first-of-its-kind national emergency briefing” on Thursday morning.
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Nine eco-minded gifts that actually make a difference

From tool library memberships to repair kits and even refurbished electronics – here are ways to give sustainable gifts this holiday season
- The 163 best holiday gift ideas for 2025, vetted by the Guardian US staff
- Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things
Here is the uncomfortable truth about gift-giving: many fun-to-unwrap baubles get used twice, shoved in a drawer, and eventually hauled off to Goodwill or the landfill. So for anyone who cares about the climate crisis or the environment, the holidays are a minefield of cognitive dissonance: you want to give loved ones something meaningful, while cringing at your own consumerism. It’s a dilemma, but it doesn’t have to be.
There are thoughtful ways to give without adding to the problem, or better yet, giving gifts that make the right kind of difference. We’re not talking about carbon credits or vague promises of planting trees – the gifts here can extend the life of things you already own, replace single-use waste, or fund conservation work directly. Some I have tested myself; others come from trusted organizations with long track records and verifiable credentials. Here are some gift ideas that you and your eco-minded recipient can both feel great about.
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Power surge: law changes could soon bring balcony solar to millions across US

Tweaks to state laws mean many Americans will be able to benefit from small, simple plug-in solar panels
Acquiring solar panels at home can be an expensive hassle for people in the US. But small, simple, plug-in solar panels for use on balconies are soon to become available for millions of Americans, with advocates hoping the technology will quickly go mainstream.
Earlier this year, Utah became the first state in the country to pass legislation allowing people to purchase and install small, portable solar panels that plug into a standard wall socket.
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Rainforests, rivers and sacred sites are being ‘ripped to shreds’ by feral pigs, Queensland traditional owners warn

Destruction wrought by swine-borne disease is thinning the canopy of bunya pine forests and the problem is getting worse, experts say
- Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
- Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
High up in an ancient conifer rainforest, at what was once the largest Indigenous gathering place in eastern Australia, there is sunlight where there shouldn’t be.
Among the eponymous pine trees of the Bunya Mountains, in south-east Queensland, a deadly disease has taken root. Walking through the forest, Adrian Bauwens, a Wakka Wakka man, says pockets of sunlight have replaced what is “usually quite a dense canopy where’s it’s quite heavily shaded”.
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Eco Health News feeds

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.
HIV battle is not over, warns It's a Sin creator

Russell T Davies says misinformation about the virus made him "despair".
Women 'traumatised' by breast cancer treatment at NHS trust

More than 200 patients suffered harm, including unnecessary mastectomies, the BBC has been told.
Call for medical notes alert for maternity scandal families

Kayleigh Griffiths says the alert came about because families had to keep retelling their stories.
NHS doctor suspended over alleged antisemitic social media posts

The tribunal ruled the doctor's posts "may impact on patient confidence" in both her and the profession.
Sugar tax extended to milk-based drinks: What you need to know

Milkshakes and lattes to be included in UK sugar tax scheme for the first time.
Adolescence lasts into 30s - new study shows four pivotal ages for your brain

Brain scans on thousands of people reveal the dramatic shifts the brain goes through between birth and death.
Obesity jab drug fails to slow Alzheimer's

There were initial hopes that the drug in weight loss jab Wegovy could slow progression of dementia.
JFK's granddaughter raises awareness of rare leukaemia with poignant essay

Doctors say Tatiana Schlossberg's struggle - even with the best care as a member of a prominent family - emphasises the need for more research.
What are the symptoms of prostate cancer and what should you check for?

One in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime.

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