Pesticides: UNESCO-approved?

Hvar is rightly proud of its UNESCO-recognized assets, but are they being looked after?

Herbicide in the Stari Grad Plain, March 2016 Herbicide in the Stari Grad Plain, March 2016 Vivian Grisogono

Hvar's UNESCO entries include the 'Following the Cross' ('Za Križen') Maundy Thursday Processions, which is on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, alongside the shared listings of the tradition of making lace from the agava plant, and the Mediterranean Diet,  plus the Stari Grad Plain (Latin Ager, Greek Hora), which is on the World Heritage List. Great efforts are being made to preserve the cultural integrity of these prized historical assets. Yet there are certain obstacles which have not yet been fully recognized, which could undermine the recognition of the Stari Grad Plain and the Mediterranean Diet.

Built for family use and storing tools.

There is ongoing debate about the rights and wrongs of the buildings which dot the Stari Grad Plain. In the main, these are modern-day shelters for people working in the fields, places where tools are stored securely. Many have been built in stone, in keeping with the surrounding landscape. There are some fine renovations of old stone cottages which dated back decades, if not a century or so. There are some simple shacks, adequate for their utilitarian purpose, but not particularly attractive. There are some eco-tourism buildings, usually beautifully made small stone structures designed for shade and shelter, where visitors can enjoy Dalmatian cuisine (part of the Mediterranean Diet, after all) in exquisite natural surroundings. There are a very few more ambitious actual houses, usually very fine stone constructions, designed as holiday retreats for the owners, occasionally as rustic rental properties for guests wanting to commune with nature. All the buildings are, of course, off-grid and dependent on wells and rainwater cisterns for their water supply.

Some authorities, especially those based in Zagreb, take the view that all the buildings on the Plain should be demolished. Local people and local authorities tend to be of the opinion that the buildings, or many of them, should be allowed to stay. Some, after all, were built at a time when approval was granted in principle by the Planning Authorities, even if it was not confirmed by document. Logically, there were buildings on the Stari Grad Plain from the time it came into agricultural use under the Greeks and later the Romans. Animals and people needed shelter against the elements, whether the hot sun, fierce winds or driving rain. There is also the problem of the amount of devastation tearing all these buildings down would cause to the environment. Small though most of them are, the sum total of debris would be sizeable.

The real worry

While the debate continues over the Stari Grad Plain buildings, little attention is being paid to a much more pressing problem: the devastation of the natural environment through the relentless use of chemical pesticides.

Herbicides in a vineyard in the Stari Grad Plain, pictured one January. Photo: Vivian Grisogono

The UNESCO description of the Stari Grad Plain states: 'Stari Grad Plain on the Adriatic island of Hvar is a cultural landscape that has remained practically intact since it was first colonized by Ionian Greeks from Paros in the 4th century BC. The original agricultural activity of this fertile plain, mainly centring on grapes and olives, has been maintained since Greek times to the present. The site is also a natural reserve.' For the Mediterranean Diet, the description covers a broad range: 'The Mediterranean diet involves a set of skills, knowledge, rituals, symbols and traditions concerning crops, harvesting, fishing, animal husbandry, conservation, processing, cooking, and particularly the sharing and consumption of food.'

Herbicide beside olives in the Stari Grad Plain, April 2015. Photo: Vivian Grisogono

Herbicides and insecticides are used regularly by many of the Plain's agriculturalists, usually twice a year, but sometimes more. There is a tragic lack of awareness of the consequences: pesticides don't work as people believe they do, but they can cause a lot of harm in many different ways. There is a mass of overwhelming evidence of the harm linked to the widely used glyphosate herbicides, but the die-hard users resolutely ignore it. Many think that pesticide use is 'normal', even 'essential'. During each year, the effects of the herbicides are often all too evident. They even appear in promotional material, presumably unintentionally.

A brochure showing widespread herbicide in fields near Stari Grad.

Wild greens and asparagus, freshly foraged from the countryside, are traditional staples of the Hvar version of the Mediterranean Diet. Nowadays you have to be careful where you go foraging, to avoid being poisoned by chemical herbicide residues. Olives and olive oil are also essentials in the Mediterranean Diet. But they lose their health benefits when contaminated by chemical herbicides and insecticides.

Herbicide round vines: the poison penetrates and lasts! Photo: Vivian Grisogono

In the video below, land contaminated with herbicide is visible at intervals, especially on a path between vineyards, shown at 2 minutes 42 seconds. Such devastation of the soil and the natural environment is an ecological disaster. Contrary to commonly held belief, the herbicide spreads through the air when it's sprayed, through the soil, and through underground water, of which there is a lot on Hvar. It lasts in the soil too. And it penetrates all the plants it is in contact with. That's why glyphosate, currently the most widely used herbicide ingredient on this planet, is found in the animal and human food chains.

The World Heritage List Criteria

Pesticide use was recognised as a threat in Croatia's Nomination to include ther Stari Grad Plain in the World Heritage List:

Yet no official action has been taken to persuade land-owners to switch to organic methods of farming. This could lead to the Stari Grad Plain being transferred to the Endangered List:

The criteria for designating natural landscapes as endamgered are set out clearly, and include pesticide use:

Opportunity for change

If the Plain was added to the Endangered List, it would not be a major disaster. On the contrary, it would present an opportunity to make the situation better. UNESCO is committed to providing help to endangered properties. In this case, it would probably consist of education in the reasons why pesticides should be outlawed from the Stari Grad Plain. But such outside intervention really should not be necessary.

Chemical pesticides have no part in Hvar's historical traditional assets. The widespread use of chemical pesticides in the Stari Grad Plain, (as all over Hvar Island), undermines the basis for including it in the UNESCO listing. This holds true for Hvar's inclusion with the Mediterranean Diet. The real heritage of the island lies in organic agriculture. That is what people expect when they come to a place which has been put on the international map as a prized heritage. The few organic farmers on the Stari Grad Plain are showing the way: it can be done! Chemical pesticide users need to wise up and follow suit. The various authorities responsible for Hvar's environment and heritage should be encouraging organic agriculture in every possible way. Only then will Hvar's Stari Grad Plain and Mediterranean Diet once again truly deserve their places on the UNESCO lists.

© Vivian Grisogono MA(Oxon) 2016

You are here: Home Nature Watch Pesticides: UNESCO-approved?

Eco Environment News feeds

  • National parks, famous for their rich natural heritage, should be at the heart of efforts to protect habitats and wildlife. Instead, experts say they are declining – fast

    • Photographs by Abbie Trayler-Smith

    Dartmoor is a place where the wild things are. Rivers thread through open moorland past towering rocky outcrops. Radioactive-coloured lichens cling to 300m-year-old boulders. Bronze age burial mounds and standing stones are reminders that humans have been drawn here for thousands of years. It is considered one of the UK’s most beautiful and precious landscapes.

    Much of this moorland is officially protected as a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) because it is considered home to the country’s most valued wildlife. Its blanket bogs, heathlands and high altitude oak woodlands are treasure troves of nature.

    Continue reading...

  • Laurence Tubiana urges governments to consider levies on energy-hungry technology

    Governments should consider taxing artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies to generate funds to deal with the climate crisis, one of the architects of the Paris agreement has said.

    Laurence Tubiana, the chief executive of the European Climate Foundation and a former French diplomat, is co-lead of the Global Solidarity Levies Task Force, an international initiative to find new sources of funds for climate action by taxing highly polluting activities including aviation and fossil fuel extraction.

    Continue reading...

  • Tamar Valley, Cornwall: The heat has been tempered here of late, but still we have gatekeeper and ringlet butterflies seeking out the buddleia

    In the relative cool of evening I pick yet more blueberries and blackcurrants from unusually heavily laden bushes in the fruit cage. The top net is not yet replaced after the snow damage before Christmas but, amazingly, there is no bird or squirrel predation. A blackbird continues to sing in the hedge and a young robin flits beside me, in search of insects. Across the lane, silence is broken as our neighbouring farmer, with telescopic handler, dextrously manoeuvres big round bales from the long trailer on to the spinning wrapper, before piling up the black-plastic-covered haylage in readiness for winter.

    Late sun still lights the north‑facing slope opposite, where pale brown suckler cows, their calves and a bull spread across the pasture. Part of the main herd of around 100 pedigree South Devon cows, this group of 20 cows and calves at foot are rotated between the fields, and in our view throughout the summer months. Their long days of grazing are interspersed with regular lie‑downs, all gathered around the bull as they chew the cud.

    Continue reading...

  • Durham is thought to be first UK local authority to rescind its statement, in a move condemned as a ‘very dark day’

    A Reform-led council is thought to have become the first in the UK to rescind its climate emergency declaration, a move condemned as “a very dark day” for the authority.

    Durham county council, which has had an overwhelming Reform majority since the May local elections, passed a motion to rescind a declaration made in 2019. More than 300 local authorities have declared a climate emergency.

    Continue reading...

  • Announcement takes number of people hit by restrictions across England to about 8.5 million

    Southern Water has become the fourth English utility to issue a hosepipe ban, taking the number of people hit by such restrictions to about 8.5 million.

    The latest ban, which comes into force for about 1 million residents across large swathes of Hampshire and all of the Isle of Wight from 9am on Monday, comes after Yorkshire, Thames and South East Water announced similar measures.

    Continue reading...

  • Huge glasshouse, home to world’s oldest potted plant, to get £50m refit as part of emissions-cutting drive at gardens

    It has been the tropical jewel in one of the UK’s most famous gardens for more than 175 years, and now the Palm House in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is to get a green makeover.

    The attraction, which houses Kew’s tropical rainforest, will close for five years to allow engineers and botanists to transform it into the first net zero glasshouse in the world.

    Continue reading...

  • The tech giant will buy 3GW of US hydropower in deal to fuel AI and data center growth across eastern states

    Google has agreed to secure as much as 3GW of US hydropower in the world’s largest corporate clean power pact for hydroelectricity, the company said on Tuesday, as big tech pursues the expansion of energy-hungry datacenters.

    The deal between Google and Brookfield Asset Management includes initial 20-year power purchase agreements, totaling $3bn, for electricity generated from two hydropower facilities in Pennsylvania.

    Continue reading...

  • In Chile’s drought-stricken Atacama desert, Indigenous people say desalination plants cannot counter the impact of intensive lithium and copper mining on local water sources

    • Photographs by Luis Bustamante

    Vast pipelines cross the endless dunes of northern Chile, pumping seawater up to an altitude of more than 3,000 metres in the Andes mountains to the Escondida mine, the world’s largest copper producer. The mine’s owners say sourcing water directly from the sea, instead of relying on local reservoirs, could help preserve regional water resources. Yet, this is not the perception of Sergio Cubillos, leader of the Indigenous community Lickanantay de Peine.

    Cubillos and his fellow activists believe that the mining industry is helping to degrade the region’s meagre water resources, as Chile continues to be ravaged by a mega-drought that has plagued the country for 15 years. They also fear that the use of desalinated seawater cannot make up for the devastation of the northern Atacama region’s sensitive water ecosystem and local livelihoods.

    Continue reading...

  • As soon as 2060, global heating may send temperatures high enough to stop children in most parts of country from taking part in outdoor summer sports, study shows

    The tens of thousands of fans filing into Koshien baseball stadium near Osaka are more grateful than usual for the freebies handed out at the entrance: floppy sun hats bearing the logo of the Hanshin Tigers, the baseball team they are about to watch play their rivals from Tokyo, the Yomiuri Giants, on a clammy July evening.

    Spectators in seats in the steeply tiered bleachers waft uchiwa fans to cool their faces while vendors skipping up and down rows of steps do a roaring trade in cold beer and soft drinks.

    Continue reading...

  • Experts and advocates say it’s time for the law to change after judge says matters based on climate policy cannot be decided by courts

    In the hours after the federal court delivered its judgment in a landmark climate case on Tuesday, the two Torres Strait Islands community leaders who brought the proceedings, and their supporters, expressed their shock and dismay.

    The court had agreed with much of the factual evidence about climate impacts on the Torres Strait Islands but the case still failed. In respect of negligence law, it found the federal government did not owe Torres Strait Islanders a duty of care to protect them from global heating.

    Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Eco Nature News feeds