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

Last summer was second worst for common UK butterflies since 1976

More than half of Britain’s 59 native species are in long-term decline, UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme finds
Last summer was the fifth worst in nearly half a century for butterflies in Britain, according to the biggest scientific survey of insect populations in the world.
For the first time since scientific recording began in 1976, more than half of Britain’s 59 native species are in long-term decline.
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A gentle giant: the shy wētāpunga is adept at living in the shadows

New Zealand’s docile, solitary and elusive ‘god of ugly things’ does wonders for the forest-floor ecosystem
Are you sick of throwing yourself on the altar of unrealistic beauty standards? Do you long to celebrate the delightfully monstrous, to give the spiny stuff of shadows their day in the sun? Then consider the mighty wētāpunga – an endemic New Zealand insect so revered for its unconventional beauty its name means “god of ugly things”.
This forest behemoth is thought to be the heaviest adult insect in the world, with a female weighing as much as a mouse or a sparrow. Its body can grow up to 10cm long (nearly 4in) and its leg span can be as wide as 20cm. Once found across parts of the North Island, the vulnerable wētāpunga – the largest of 70 wētā species – now resides entirely on a smattering of predator-free islands near Auckland.
Between 24 March and 2 April, we will be profiling a shortlist of 10 of the invertebrates chosen by readers and selected by our wildlife writers from more than 2,500 nominations. The voting for our 2025 invertebrate of the year will run from midday on Wednesday 2 April until midday on Friday 4 April, and the winner will be announced on Monday 7 April.
Continue reading...
Wildlife groups express alarm at plan to ‘streamline’ UK environmental rules

Government wants to spur economic growth and drive housebuilding but charities say nature should be priority
Wildlife groups have expressed alarm after ministers promised a radically “streamlined” approach to UK environmental regulation intended to drive economic growth and speed up new housing, as well as major projects such as airports.
While officials said the plans should boost nature conservation overall, the removal of what one called “bat by bat” decisions, a reference to the £100m bat shelter constructed for part of HS2, could water down individual protections.
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Specieswatch: Sardines doing well around UK, but struggling in warmer waters

Scientists say they are ingesting more microplastics in Mediterranean as the plankton they feed on struggle to survive in warming waters
As the Latin name suggests, Sardina pilchardus can be called a sardine or a pilchard when it is tinned or offered on a fishmonger’s slab. One common definition is that if it is longer than 15cm it is called a pilchard and if smaller, a sardine.
However, when pilchards fell out of favour with consumers, 15cm pilchards were rebranded as Cornish sardines and sales picked up again. To add to the confusion, other small silver fish are often passed off as sardines.
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Country diary: At this time of year, the landscape is as pale as it gets | Nicola Chester

Inkpen, Berkshire: All is accented by a bleached-out leaching of colour – before the green fuse of spring ignites and rushes through everything
Just before the land turns green in the chalky downlands, it goes as pale as it gets. As the earth warms and dries, the seed-drilled arable fields look as if they are spread with fresh breadcrumbs. The ruts harden and the rain-dark mud down the centre and the sides of the lanes greys and lightens to a crumbly, scuffable chalk dust that drifts in eddies and whitens everything further.
The pasture has a thatch of winter-weathered grass, and its split-wood colour is taken up by the raffia ribbons of spent bryony laced through the hedges, and the needle-fine forest of cleaver stems reaching up from the bottom. All is accented by a bleached-out leaching of colour before the green fuse of spring ignites and rushes through everything. It’s time to harrow and roll.
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RHS develops ‘robust lawn’ that works for people, pollinators and pets

Full of clovers and dandelions, with a hard-wearing rye grass, the approach is environmentally friendly and usable
Is there a perfect formula for a hard-wearing flower lawn that is good for pollinators, dogs and people?
The immaculately mown green has fallen out of favour in recent years owing to its lack of support for biodiversity. But there have also been complaints about the tall wildflower meadows that grow during “no mow May” and are less usable for humans and pets.
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An elusive worm: the Salinella is shrouded in mystery

A 19th-century zoologist found the ‘little salt dweller’, which could be a portal to the past – if only we could locate it again
Last February, with colleagues Gert and Philipp and my daughter Francesca, I made the long journey to an unremarkable city called Río Cuarto, east of the Argentinian Andes. We went in search of a worm of unusual distinction.
Why a worm? As humans, we naturally love the animals that are most familiar. But from a zoologist’s point of view, the vertebrates, from mammals and birds to frogs and fish, can be seen as variations on a single theme. We all have a head at one end (with skull, eyes and jaws); in the middle, a couple of pairs of limbs (a goldfish’s fins, or your arms and legs); and, holding all this together, a backbone ending in a tail.
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‘It’s horrible’: one month in, the Birmingham bin strike is causing a real stink

Locals are feeling the impact of the more than 17,000 tonnes of uncollected rubbish in the city’s streets
“I’m afraid to open my front door, they’re everywhere,” said Mary Dore, eyeing the ground outside her house in Balsall Heath suspiciously. “They run out from under the cars when you get in, they’re going in the engines. They chewed through the cables in my son’s car, costing him god knows how much.
“There’s one street I can’t walk my dog because they come running out of the grass and the piles of rubbish. One time I screamed.”
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‘The ice is not freezing as it should’: supply roads to Canada’s Indigenous communities under threat from climate crisis

Northern Ontario is seeing a ‘shorter window’ for ice roads that deliver vital supplies to remote First Nations
At first there was no answer on the satellite phone. But on the third call, Donald Meeseetawageesic heard his sister’s voice. “We need somebody to come and tow us out,” he told her.
It was a warmer-than-normal night in early March and Meeseetawageesic, the elected band councillor for Eabametoong First Nation, was stranded in a 4x4 truck on the dark winter road leading to his community. The tyres were stuck in the deep snow and the temperature outside was below freezing. Help was about 60km (37 miles) away.
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‘The ultimate circular economy’: how coral holobionts conjure magnificence from nothing

These creatures evolved over millenia to create nature’s finest circular economy, but are now struggling to survive
There’s no preparing for a first encounter with a thriving coral reef: your attention ricochets between dramas of colour, form and movement. A blaze of fire coral, darting clown fish, crimson sponge, electric blue ray … a turtle! Your heart soars, your head spins. Nowhere else will you encounter such density and diversity of life.
Corals are the architects of all this splendour. Their immobile forms suggest plants, but they’re animals – solar-powered ones. Each is a colony of thousands, sometimes millions, of tiny coral polyps, each resembling a slimmed-down sea anemone, just millimetres tall.
Between 24 March and 2 April, we will be profiling a shortlist of 10 of the invertebrates chosen by readers and selected by our wildlife writers from more than 2,500 nominations. The voting for our 2025 invertebrate of the year will run from midday on Wednesday 2 April until midday on Friday 4 April, and the winner will be announced on Monday 7 April.
Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Don't deport us over health issue, say British couple in Australia

A Macclesfield woman fears she will have to leave Australia due to her medical condition.
Public satisfaction with NHS hits record low

A fifth 21% happy with NHS in Britain, finds long-running poll, with waits and staffing of major concern.
NHS billions wasted as bipolar patients left 'forgotten and failed'

Exclusive data shows how neglect of this common mental health condition costs the UK nearly £10bn a year.
Protests postponed after pharmacy funding boost

Community pharmacies have delayed protest action after the government agreed a new funding package.
Alarms, overdoses and saving lives: Two days in UK's first drug injection room

The BBC was given exclusive access to the controversial facility in the east end of Glasgow.
Morning-after pill to be made free at pharmacies in England

The government hopes the move will end the "unfair postcode lottery" some women face.
'I had to use a goods lift to go for an abortion'

Dani Czernuszka-Watt was told the clinic she went to had never treated a person in a wheelchair before.
Are my braids doing more harm than good?

Research suggests the synthetic hair used for braiding could be bad for you - but will that stop women using it?
'I fear I'll be dead before I get justice for my son'

Tony Summers' son Paul was diagnosed with HIV and Hepatitis C and died in 2008 aged 44.
Doctor 'betrayed' over son's death at her hospital

Deborah Burns says she is unable to return to work at the hospital after the death of her son, William Hewes.

Eco Nature News feeds

News spotlight: Report warns of growing human toll as planet warms

Last year was the hottest on record — sparking major climate disasters across the globe that left a trail of destruction, including lost lives, destroyed infrastructure and decimated crops.
AI-based tool for nature wins big

Data is key to solving some of the world’s toughest problems, but it’s often scattered and disorganized. An AI-powered tool from Conservation International can help.
‘We’re just trying to adapt’: Coffee farmers face down climate change

For one of the world’s most important crops, a project supported by Conservation International is grounds for optimism.
Why a new treaty to protect the high seas is a ‘game-changer’

Roughly two-thirds of the world’s oceans lie beyond national boundaries in an area known as the “high seas” — yet only about 1 percent of that largely unexplored expanse has been protected. Now, nearly 200 countries have agreed on the first-ever United Nations treaty to protect the high seas.
News spotlight: Humanity barreling toward ‘irreversible’ climate tipping points

In case you missed it: A new study suggests that the consequences of crossing critical climate thresholds could be more severe than previously thought — including the collapse of polar ice sheets and death of coral reefs.
That UN climate report wasn’t all bad news

The recent IPCC climate report was bleak, but there are silver linings. Our expert weighs in.
New science: deep-sea hotspot, Indigenous ocean conservation and more

Protecting nature starts with science. Here’s a roundup of recent research published by Conservation International experts.
These ecosystems could determine our climate future: study

Nature’s stashes of climate-warming carbon is packed into a small percentage of Earth’s lands, finds a new study that pinpoints the ecosystems humanity must protect to avert a climate disaster.
Notes from the field: Forest drones, gorilla germs and more

Here are three recent conservation success stories you should know about.
New map pinpoints where people depend on nature the most

A new study is the first to quantify people’s dependence on nature, and underscores the extent of the threat that climate change and the destruction of nature pose to human life.

ECO HVAR: AIMS AND ACTIVITIES OF THE CHARITY

Environment

Health

Animals