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

A silent majority of the world’s people wants stronger climate action. It’s time to wake up | Mark Hertsgaard and Kyle Pope

About 89% of the public want their governments to do more to tackle the climate crisis – but don’t know they’re the majority
- The Guardian is joining forces with dozens of newsrooms around the world to launch the 89% Project – and highlight the fact that the vast majority of the world’s population wants climate action. Read more
A superpower in the fight against global heating is hiding in plain sight. It turns out that the overwhelming majority of people in the world – between 80% and 89%, according to a growing number of peer-reviewed scientific studies – want their governments to take stronger climate action.
As co-founders of a non-profit that studies news coverage of climate change, those findings surprised even us. And they are a sharp rebuttal to the Trump administration’s efforts to attack anyone who does care about the climate crisis.
Mark Hertsgaard and Kyle Pope are the co-founders of the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now
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Two teens and 5,000 ants: how a smuggling bust shed new light on a booming trade

Two Belgian 19-year-olds have pleaded guilty to wildlife piracy – part of a growing trend of trafficking ‘less conspicuous’ creatures for sale as exotic pets
Poaching busts are familiar territory for the officers of Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), an armed force tasked with protecting the country’s iconic creatures. But what awaited guards when they descended in early April on a guesthouse in the west of the country was both larger and smaller in scale than the smuggling operations they typically encounter. There were more than 5,000 smuggled animals, caged in their own enclosures. Each one, however, was about the size of a little fingernail: 18-25mm.
The cargo, which two Belgian teenagers had apparently intended to ship to exotic pet markets in Europe and Asia, was ants. Their enclosures were a mixture of test tubes and syringes containing cotton wool – environments that authorities say would keep the insects alive for weeks.
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EVs to cost more under a Coalition government, after Dutton’s apparent backflip on popular tax break

Polestar says Dutton’s move shows ‘a complete lack of understanding of the significant cost-of-living, climate and health benefits of EVs’
Electric vehicles would cost more under a Coalition government, after Peter Dutton confirmed he would scrap a popular tax break for EV drivers in an apparent backflip that has caused confusion and anger among clean car advocates.
The initiative, which was introduced by the Albanese government in 2022, has meant if a person buys an EV priced under $91,387 through a novated lease program via their employer (when a lease is paid off through pre-taxed salary deductions) they do not have to pay fringe benefits tax (FBT) – even if the car is only for personal use.
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Country diary: Thousands of honey drops on a single branch | Paul Evans

The Marches, Shropshire: In this garden we’ve had woolly aphids, rose aphids, whitefly and blackfly, now we have Californian maple aphids, who have a story of their own
An accidental touch of a branch brings a handful of little sticky dots. Looking at the branch, the surprise is that all the lower ones are covered with a shifting pointillism of dots moving together. Under a hand lens they become autonomous animals – aphids.
There are thousands of them, moving independently as individuals, each with a sense of purpose and moment, determined and working together. Forming clusters around scar tissue on bark wounds, walking upwards towards the canopy of opening leaves, the aphids catch the sunlight and their amber bodies shine with the viscosity of drops of honey. In the morning sun they cast shadows, an imaginary material to which old fears and prejudices stick.
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Xi contrasts China’s clean energy promises with Trump turmoil

Virtual meeting of leaders also hears UN’s António Guterres proclaim ‘no group or government’ can stop green revolution
China will continue to push forward on the climate crisis, Xi Jinping has said while appearing to criticise the “protectionism” of Donald Trump’s tariff policies.
The Chinese president was attending a closed-door virtual meeting with the UN secretary general, António Guterres, Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and about a dozen other heads of state and government to discuss the climate crisis.
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‘We don’t call them woolly maggots’: how wildlife campaigners put sheep at heart of rewilding plans

The Wildlife Trusts are in shock after acquiring 4,000 sheep in Rothbury estate deal as part of land restoration project
Woolly maggots, nature-destroyers – sheep are criticised by many conservationists for denuding Britain’s uplands of rare plants and trees.
So The Wildlife Trusts were shocked when they were compelled to buy 4,000 sheep as part of the biggest land restoration project in England.
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Meet the new American refugees fleeing across state lines for safety

Americans have often moved between states for opportunities. Now they’re being forced to uproot themselves to escape hostile forces under Trump
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He fought to stop the forest being felled. The price was 30 years in prison for a murder he says he did not commit

The UN has called the detention of Pablo López Alavez ‘arbitrary’, while human rights organisations say his sentence is part of a systematic and alarming pattern of criminalisation of Mexico’s environmental activists
The meeting room in the prison of Villa de Etla, a town in Oaxaca, Mexico, doubles as a classroom with school desks and a small library. The walls feature motivational phrases such as “First things first”, “Live and let live” and “Little by little, you’ll go far”.
Pablo López Alavez, a 56-year-old environmental defender, has had nearly 15 years to contemplate these sentiments – and faces 15 more, after being imprisoned for murders he says he did not commit.
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A dwarf crocodile carried home by a hunter: Thomas Nicolon’s best photograph

‘As a species, these crocs are easy to find and easy to catch. Brice Itoua is the most skilled hunter in his village. But they kill the crocs to eat – not to sell’
The Congo dwarf crocodile is a lovely species. They’re very shy and, unfortunately, very easy to find and catch. Mostly hunted for their bushmeat, these crocs only grow up to a few feet in length and during the dry season, they often spend the daytime hiding in burrows and dens at the water’s edge. Hunters use a long, woody liana vine with a hook on the end to drag them out, before binding their snout with a shorter vine and carrying them away.
Last summer, I shot a story about the Congo dwarf crocodile after being given access to the Lake Télé Community Reserve by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which manages this protected area in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with the Congolese government.
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Mediterranean megaflood carved out hills in Sicily, study reveals

Rock deposits provide first land-based evidence of Earth’s largest flood, when water surged through strait of Gibraltar
The event that refilled the Mediterranean basin 5m years ago is thought to have been the largest flood in Earth’s history, with water surging through the present-day strait of Gibraltar 1,000 times faster than the Amazon River, filling the basin in just a couple of years. Now jumbled rock deposits on the top of hills in south-east Sicily provide the first land-based evidence for this flood.
The megaflood theory emerged in 2009, when scientists discovered a massive eroded channel at the bottom of the strait of Gibraltar. Subsequent research has revealed scours on the sea floor, showing how the water forced its way through the shallow gap between Sicily and mainland Africa, to fill the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
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Eco Health News feeds

'My peanut allergy nearly killed me - now I eat them every day for breakfast'

Just a few years ago, Chris Brookes-Smith could have died from eating peanuts - but taking part in a clinical trial has changed his life.
Exhausted hospital staff putting patients at risk, says watchdog

NHS safety body wants a focus on staff fatigue as it warns of mistakes and impaired decision-making.
Millions of vapes seized in illegal trade crackdown

Single-use vapes are among the main driving forces of the black market, the BBC is told.
'One-of-a-kind' girl born with heart outside chest has pioneering surgery

Vanellope, now seven, undergoes more surgery to reconstruct a "cage" around her heart, using her ribs.
The Vivienne hid ketamine struggle to protect family, sister says

James Lee Williams' sister says the family only learned of the drag performer's drug problem after watching Drag Race UK.
These men put off doctor's visits again and again. Then came a tipping point

In an NHS survey, 48% of men said they felt pressure to "tough it out" when it came to potential health issues.
'Why I want an IVF baby to screen out gene that made me go blind'

Blind influencer Lucy Edwards on choosing IVF which will screen out the gene that made her who she is.
Plan for GPs to keep millions out of hospital

GPs will work more closely with specialists to support patients closer to home, the government says.
Disposable vape use falling in UK ahead of ban

The number of people vaping in the UK has stalled, while disposable vape usage has fallen, a study suggests.
WHO agrees legally binding pandemic treaty

The agreement is designed to ensure more cooperation between nations in the event of another pandemic.

Eco Nature News feeds

What on Earth is ‘eDNA’?

From “blue carbon” to “ecosystem services,” environmental jargon is everywhere. In an explainer series, we try to make sense of it.
Earth Month: Reimagining conservation for the benefit of all

To make conservation work for all, it must be more compassionate, conscious and inclusive. Here are a few stories about how Conservation International is reimagining conservation to be more inclusive.
Earth Month: Shaping an economy built on nature

For much of modern history, humanity’s growth has come at the expense of nature. At Conservation International, we’re flipping the economic equation that renders nature worth more dead than alive.
Earth Month: How we’re keeping the ocean healthy

The ocean has long provided humanity with food, livelihoods and a stable climate. Yet it is increasingly hot, acidic and polluted. In honor of Earth Month, here are a few success stories from Conservation International.
Earth Month: Helping nature help the climate

For years, Conservation International was one of few voices clamoring for action on one crucial issue: To prevent the worst of climate change, we must protect nature. Our efforts have paid off.
In Hawai‘i, new effort to bring invasive species to heel

If you can’t beat ’em, wear ’em? Conservation International, designers turn fish into fashion.
Ahead of pandemic talks, this doctor has nature on his mind

Human health, animal health and environmental health are interconnected. A new article published in the Lancet argues for an approach to pandemic threats that embraces this idea.
Amid a vanishing savanna, new corridor a ‘big win’ for wildlife

Conservation International is helping recover a savanna habitat nearly twice the size of Manhattan.
Can tree farms save a forest? Brazil is about to find out

In Brazil's s Mato Grosso do Sul, native species are reclaiming thousands of acres once heavily grazed by cattle. A bold initiative aims to protect and restore nature to an area twice the size of Manhattan — and find new ways to pay for it.
What on Earth is ‘HFLD’? (Hint: It’s about forests)

From “blue carbon” to “ecosystem services,” environmental jargon is everywhere. Conservation International looks to make sense of it in an occasional explainer series. In this installment, we explore the role “HFLDs,” play in storing climate-warming carbon.

ECO HVAR: AIMS AND ACTIVITIES OF THE CHARITY

Environment

Health

Animals