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: Be aware!

Donations

Donations can be made in euros or pounds, dollars and Swiss francs. Please let us know when you have made a donation, especially if you require an official receipt, as the bank does not always identify donors. All donations, however small, are very welcome.

ECO HVAR BANK DETAILS

Privredna Banka Zagreb d.d.

Poslovnica 220 Pjaca, Pjaca 1

21465 Jelsa, Croatia

IBAN: HR37 2340 0091 1106 0678 6 (Account number)

SWIFT CODE: PBZGHR2X

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

Harvest in England the second worst on record because of wet weather

Wheat haul in England estimated to be down by 21%, with Britain’s wine producers also hit hard
England has suffered its second worst harvest on record – with fears growing for next year – after heavy rain last winter hit production of key crops including wheat and oats.
The cold, damp weather, stretching from last autumn through this spring and early summer, has hit the rapidly developing UK wine industry particularly hard, with producers saying harvests are down by between 75% and a third, depending on the region.
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Foreign aid for fossil fuel projects quadrupled in a single year

With clean air projects receiving just 1% of aid, activists say nations ‘cannot continue polluting practices at expense of climate stability’
Foreign aid for fossil fuel projects quadrupled in a single year, a report has found, rising from $1.2bn in 2021 to $5.4bn in 2022.
“This shocking increase in aid funding to fossil fuels is a wake-up call,” said Jane Burston, CEO of nonprofit the Clean Air Fund, which conducted the research. “The world cannot continue down this path of propping up polluting practices at the expense of global health and climate stability.”
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Collapsing wildlife populations near ‘points of no return’, report warns

As average population falls reach 95% in some regions, experts call for urgent action but insist ‘nature can recover’
Global wildlife populations have plunged by an average of 73% in 50 years, a new scientific assessment has found, as humans continue to push ecosystems to the brink of collapse.
Latin America and the Caribbean recorded the steepest average declines in recorded wildlife populations, with a 95% fall, according to the WWF and the Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) biennial Living Planet report. They were followed by Africa with 76%, and Asia and the Pacific at 60%. Europe and North America recorded comparatively lower falls of 35% and 39% respectively since 1970.
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Country diary: The rowans are out in force, lifting the autumnal gloom | Merryn Glover

Badenoch, Cairngorms: Graceful as a folk tale queen, they’re throwing out their arms, feathery green and bearing clusters of bright red berries
The early October forest is at the turning point, that enchanted time of year when everything is changing form and colour. It havers, slipping backwards and forwards across the threshold between dark and light, the underworld of woodsy rot and the sky-song of geese, the realms of substance and spirit.
Last night, the stars were fiercely bright and this morning we woke to frost. It still clings to the shadowed hollows of the ground cover and the lacework of spider webs. Higher up, the trees are stirring softly, like a great mystery is coming. The cascading birch boughs are tinged with yellow, the upright aspens a spangling of gold, paper-thin coins trembling against the high blue.
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English water system singled out for criticism by UN special rapporteur

Prof Pedro Arrojo-Agudo says regulator Ofwat ‘complacent’ about water firms putting their shareholders before public
The privatised English water system has been singled out for criticism by the UN special rapporteur on the human right to clean water.
Prof Pedro Arrojo-Agudo said water systems should be managed as a publicly owned service, rather than run by private companies set up to benefit shareholders.
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‘A huge loss’: is it the end for the ship that helped us understand life on Earth?

The Joides Resolution has contributed to our understanding of climate crisis, the origin of life, earthquakes and eruptions. But funding cuts mean it may have sailed its last expedition
In the early summer of this year, a ship set sail around the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. But this wasn’t any ordinary ship. For almost 40 years the Joides Resolutiondrilled into the ocean floor to collect samples and data that helped scientists to study Earth’s history and structure. Expeditions on the vessel have made a vital contribution to our understanding of the climate crisis, the tectonic plates theory, the origin of life on Earth and natural hazards such as earthquakes and eruptions. Yet the two-month voyage around Svalbard was to be its last.
The National Science Foundation (NSF), the US agency that provided scientists at Texas A&M University with funds for the ship, announced last year it would not give money for the drilling vessel past September 2024. It was a declaration that shocked the global scientific community and meant that Svalbard would be the ship’s final outing.
The vibration isolated television is attached to the drillpipe and is used to image the seafloor before drilling begins. Photograph: Lisa Crowder/IODP JRSO
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ME left me bedbound for nearly five years. A potted plant helped me rebuild my life

Illness had robbed me of my health, my confidence and my joy. But when my mum brought me something to care for, I regained my sense of purpose
The life I loved came to an abrupt end when I was diagnosed with severe myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, in 1997. For years, my world revolved around bedpans, bed baths, wheelchairs and stairlifts. Then an unexpected gift began to revive a sense of joy I thought I had lost for ever.
I grew up in a gardening-mad household. As a child, I would help my dad tend his prize roses, rake the lawn and carry home the weird-looking leeks and cauliflowers he grew on his allotment. He was my hero and I was never far from his side until he died when I was just 11. From that moment on, gardening lost its appeal: the memories were just too painful. I turned my back on all things green.
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Hellish heat and primal fear: Croatian firefighters on frontline of climate crisis

Firefighters are stoic about the risks they face but say climate change has affected every part of the job
A short drive and a world away from the tourist-thronged old town of Split, past retirees clambering out of cruise ships and stag parties stumbling into beachside bars, Ivan Sanader studied a smouldering hillside that stank of smoke.
The night before, he had fought a fire that charred the slope and threatened to engulf a roadside restaurant. Now, the commander of a mobile firefighter centre in Croatia was issuing orders to stop it flaring back up.
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Heatwaves are burning away memories of the ‘typical British summer’

This year’s damp high season wasn’t terrible, just typical – but now we judge it against the scorching temperatures of the 2020s
By general consensus the British summer of 2024 was a bit rubbish – even though the numbers say it was about average. What is behind this clash of perceptions? The Met Office socio-meteorologist Helen Roberts says it is because recent hot summers have changed our expectations.
“There have been multiple heatwaves in recent years, including the unprecedented extreme heat in 2022 as well as the long, hot lockdown summer of 2020,” says Roberts. She says that two psychological effects, recency bias and the availability heuristic – in which we perceive things through the lens either of recent events or memories that spring readily to mind – “mean we get used to these extremes and then expect more of the same”.
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Some Floridians choose to stay despite warnings of life risk: ‘We have faith in the Lord’

As Hurricane Milton approaches many cities were largely deserted but some people decided to shelter in place
Most left when they were told to. But some chose to stay, even though officials warned Hurricane Milton would turn their homes into coffins.
Along Florida’s Gulf coast, where millions of people were urged to get out of harm’s way, cities were largely deserted on Wednesday afternoon as time ran out to evacuate. Those who remained were advised to shelter in place as best they could. Others who fled spoke of their dread at what, if anything, they would return to once the storm had passed.
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Eco Health News feeds

Time to fix NHS as long waits continue, experts say

Government is urged to show commitment to the NHS at the Budget, as experts sound the alarm over missed targets.
UK firm GSK to pay $2.2bn over Zantac cancer claims

The firm has reached agreements with law firms representing about 80,000, or 93%, of claimants.
Police identify 24 suspects over hospital drug deaths

Several people are being investigated for alleged gross negligence manslaughter over the deaths.
Families criticise redacted report into disgraced surgeon

A heavily-redacted report on cases linked to surgeon Yaser Jabbar should be released in full, parents say.
Puberty-blocker focus disproportionate, Cass says

The author of a landmark report into child gender services says the treatment has been oversold.
Inquest hears of opportunities missed in teen death

The inquest is hearing from staff who were on duty when Chloe Longster was admitted to hospital.
More bereaved parents offered baby-loss certificate

The certificates are a recognition of pregnancy loss before 24 weeks, also known as a miscarriage.
We were not treated as parents, Covid inquiry told

Mum of premature twins says rigid restrictions on birthing wards during Covid were traumatic.
Covid ambulance crews faced 'crucial PPE delays'

Crews say they faced crucial delays trying to save dying patients because of the time it took to put on equipment.
Covid was like a daily terror attack, doctor tells inquiry

Covid inquiry hears harrowing testimony from ex-adviser in emergency preparedness at NHS England.

Eco Nature News feeds

Meet a scientist protecting 'overlooked' ecosystems

‘It’s easy to take water for granted’: How one self-professed pessimist keeps fighting for the future of freshwater ecosystems.
Meet the startup turning the tide on plastic pollution

Does the ocean hold the key to a replacement for plastic? Sway, a California-based startup backed by Conservation International, is using seaweed to replace the plastic in packaging.
News spotlight: Sharks are deserting coral reefs. Here's why that matters

Rising ocean temperatures are disrupting marine ecosystems, a new study finds — but recent Conservation International projects offer hope for sharks.
Study: Protecting the ocean helps fight malnutrition

A new study challenges the idea that marine protected areas come at the expense of locals’ access to fish — instead, finding that fish catches in coral reefs could increase by up to 20 percent.
‘Intense’ drought, fires pummel Amazon

Parts of the Amazon rainforest are suffering through the worst droughts ever recorded. As a result major rivers are dwindling and wildfires are burning out of control. Deforestation is behind it.
The giving trees: In Kenya, forests keep communities from the brink

In Kenya's Chyulu Hills, Conservation International is helping communities turn nature into a lifeline for education, health and well-being.
How a fearsome predator helped bring this community back to life

Shrimp powered a small Mexican community’s economy for years — until deforestation nearly wiped them out. To bring them back, the community enlisted an unexpected, and misunderstood, ally.
News spotlight: How many fish in the sea? Less than we thought

There are plenty of fish in the sea, so the old saying goes. But that’s not as true as it used to be: Climate change, pollution and overfishing have slashed global fish populations. Now a new study suggests the problem may be worse than expected.
Long silenced, an African park roars back to life

Years of civil war left Mozambique’s national parks in ruins. But in one park, a decade of conservation has brought the savanna roaring back to life. Now, Conservation International and Peace Parks Foundation are replicating this success on a massive scale.
For climate-fighting farms, squeeze in some trees: study

Farmland worldwide could stash away as much planet-warming carbon as the global emissions of all cars combined — if it integrates more trees, our new study finds.

ECO HVAR: AIMS AND ACTIVITIES OF THE CHARITY

Environment

Health

Animals