Eco Hvar's aims for protecting animals and improving animal welfare, plus related articles
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Photo: Vivian Grisogono
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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.
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.
More than 20,000 votes cast in Butterfly Conservation’s poll of 60 native species to find nation’s favourite for first time
The votes are in on Britain’s favourite butterfly, and it is one of the most ubiquitous yet spectacular backyard beauties that has flown to victory.
With its lavender, yellow and maroon eye spots and luscious rusty red and black colouration, the peacock butterfly is both beautiful and commonplace, flying throughout spring, summer and autumn in all corners of the British Isles.
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Imperial College scientists analysed health records before and after introduction of air pollution reduction zones
Low emission and clean air zones attract controversy whenever they are proposed, but there is growing evidence that they work in improving air quality. The Bradford zone was followed by a reduction of about 25% in GP visits for heart and breathing problems and survey data shows that the central London zone was followed by a reduction in the likelihood of a person taking sick leave.
Now analysis of health records has found emergency admissions to hospital reduced after the introduction of the T-charge and ultra-low emissions zone (Ulez) in central London.
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Long-awaited course to examine human effects on natural world and explore everyday ways to aid biodiversity
School pupils will learn how to plant a wildflower-friendly garden, according to long-awaited plans announced on Thursday for a natural history GCSE in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Campaigners have for more than a decade called for the study of biodiversity loss and global heating to be introduced as a dedicated subject in classrooms across the country, but despite a curriculum being previously drawn up, its launch has faced repeated delays.
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Intricate tests show hair-trigger detection causes cells on outer surface of leaf to soften, prompting closure
The Venus flytrap is one of nature’s most impressive predators, luring insects with the intoxicating scent of nectar before capturing them with a snap of its jaw-like leaves.
Now, scientists have revealed the mechanism that allows the carnivorous plant to react with lightning speed, resolving a problem that stumped Charles Darwin and many researchers after him.
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In this week’s newsletter: Joining a research team on the Darwin and Wolf Islands off the Ecuadorian coast revealed how critically endangered species are reacting to their rapidly changing ocean environment
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Darwin and Wolf Islands in the Galápagos archipelago are the kinds of places scuba divers and marine biologists dream of visiting, myself included. I even wrote a children’s book imagining a team of scientists exploring the underwater wonders of the Galápagos islands on a beautiful sailing ship.
That’s why I’m still pinching myself that earlier this year I got to take part in a real expedition to Darwin and Wolf.
‘Super-rich’s assets cause outsized amount of climate harm’
‘An equal and habitable world is possible’: academics set out sweeping vision for planetary survival
‘This may be our last chance’: rising sea levels threaten Kiribati’s World Cup dream | The Hotspot
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Cardiff: I still remember my first otter sighting, on a bog in the mid-90s. This, in a lab on a stainless steel table, is something else
Otter No 4,888 was found at the side of the road near the River Cefni on Anglesey in November 2024. The collector froze her body and sent it, as every dead otter in the UK should be, to Cardiff University’s Otter Project for a postmortem. The vast majority of the 200 or so animals dissected here annually are roadkill.
On one of the hottest days of the year, we put on lab coats, gloves and masks. Otter No 4,888 is laid out on the stainless steel table. Aside from a mark on her hind left leg and some bleeding from the nose, this young female’s body looks intact. I take the rare opportunity to look closely at her cat-like whiskers, the white patch under her chin, and the round black pads of her webbed feet.
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This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world
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Despite plunging border crossings, the Trump administration is circumventing laws to expedite building in a vast, pristine wilderness
The Trump administration has waived a slew of environmental and historical preservation laws that would allow it to build a towering border wall that cuts through Big Bend national park, a vast protected wilderness in south Texas.
Congress poured a whopping $46.5bn for border wall construction into the “Big, Beautiful” bill last year, supercharging Donald Trump’s ambition to wall off the southern border with Mexico. The longest unwalled stretches lie along a roughly 500-mile (800km) section of west Texas that Customs and Border Protection calls the “Big Bend sector”.
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While La Calera faced severe water rationing, local springs were being drained by the drinks giant’s franchise. So the residents fought back
When a severe drought struck La Calera near Bogotá, many of its residents lost their water for drinking, cooking and farming and faced up to 15 days of strict water rationing each month. Yet the area is home to Chingaza reservoir, which supplies about 70% of the drinking water for Colombia’s capital.
As the drought stretched from April 2024 to April last year, people began to look more closely at how their water was being managed.
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As the US shuts its doors to most refugees, there’s little hope of a new system to help those forced from home by climate impacts
Millions of people around the world are having their lives upended by floods, storms and heatwaves worsened by the climate crisis. Those forced to flee their home countries, however, are finding that the door to the US is more firmly shut than ever.
Neither US nor international law recognizes environmental hazards, such as climate-related displacement, as a valid cause to claim asylum or gain entry through other migration pathways, despite the mounting toll of disasters caused by an overheating planet.
Continue reading...Patients on the trial have not needed medication to manage their condition.
People tell BBC Your Voice the rising cost of private dentistry is putting them in a difficult position.
The decision for the one-off vaccine programme follows the unprecedented outbreak in Kent this year.
Manufacturer Novo Nordisk says a daily tablet of the drug could be more convenient for some people than weekly injections.
New data reveals sheer scale of patients in England being treated in unsafe and undignified make-shift areas.
Some men in England with the disease will now be offered an advanced form of treatment on the NHS.
Denmark's team doctor said an ICD implanted into the footballer's chest responded as it should after he collapsed on Sunday.
A third of the weight loss from obesity jabs can come from muscle, say experts.
Not all fruit and veg is equal for getting nutrients called flavanols, say researchers.
The shift marks a significant rise over the last five years, but experts say there is no single, clear explanation for the increase.
Deep in the mountains of Palawan, Conservation International scientists are capturing what few people ever see: the secret lives of the Philippines’ rarest species.
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.
“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’s Neil Vora was selected for TIME’s Next 100 list — alongside other rising leaders reshaping culture, science and society.
Climate change is happening. And it’s placing the world’s reefs in peril. What can be done?
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.
The Amazon rainforest, known for lush green canopies and an abundance of freshwater, is drying out — and deforestation is largely to blame.
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.
In a grueling and delicate dance, a team led by Conservation International removes a massive undersea killer.
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.
