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Environment

Environment

 

ECO HVAR'S AIMS:

To initiate, organize, promote and encourage projects to preserve and improve the natural environment.

HOW?:

- through projects for education in organic methods of farming

- through projects for education in the use of biodegradable substances for household washing and cleaning

- through projects to reduce the use of poisons and chemicals

- through projects for education in waste and rubbish management

- through projects for education in recycling

- through  projects to clean up the environment

- through projects to establish valid international organic certification for products

- through co-operation with organizations having similar aims in Croatia and abroad

Caring for Hvar's Environment

Published in Environment

What inspired ECO HVAR for the environment

Caring for Hvar's Environment
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Bird Names

Published in Environment

Names in English and Croatian of birds commonly seen on Hvar, together with the scientific names. 

Pied wagtail, December 2015.
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Hvar's Wildflower Treasures

Published in Environment

The wildflowers on Hvar are a year-round joy. Even in the depths of winter, there is hardly a week without colours brightening up the countryside, contrasting with the island's rocks and the variegated dark green of the woodlands. 

Hvar's Wildflower Treasures
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Perilous Pesticides

Published in Environment

Good health depends on clean air, clean water and a clean environment. Hvar Island is perfectly placed to offer all those amenities.

Perilous Pesticides
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Glyphosate - GBH

Published in Environment

GBH is the acronym for Grievous Bodily Harm, a criminal offence in UK law. It also stands for glyphosate-based herbicides...

Glyphosate - GBH
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Orchids, Dalmatia's Secret Treasures

Published in Environment

Wild orchids are a special part of our environment. Are we looking after them?

Orchids, Dalmatia's Secret Treasures
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Diocletian's Palace, A New Look

Published in Environment

The Romans knew how to build, and they knew how to choose the best sites for their building. Diocletian's Palace in Split is a prime and well-preserved example. New discoveries in and around the Palace in recent years have brought about a major revision of the history of this magnificent Late Antique building project.

The Peristyle
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The Organic Alternative

Published in Environment

Organic farming: possible? YES! worthwhile? YES! Mihovil Stipišić from Vrboska is proving the point.

Organic cultivation, Vrboska April 2017
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Plants, crops, soil: Natural Protection

Published in Environment

When soil is contaminated, what ends up on your plate and in your cup or glass is less than healthy. Chemical pesticides and artificial fertilizers are causing untold damage. The 'conventional model' of agriculture is exhausting the earth and undermining human health. There are much better methods of protecting soil and plants using natural resources.

Field horsetail (Equisetum arvense)
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Rubbish Management 2018

Published in Environment

Rubbish management is a hot topic, not to say hot potato, around the world at the moment, especially in Croatia, where the European Directives which were laid down some years ago are finally due to come into force on November 1st 2018.

Binning litter, do it right!
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Starigrad Plain: Our Survey

Published in Environment

 

The results from our survey about land usage on the Starigrad Plain (Hora, Ager). The survey was conducted on behalf of LAG Škoji (Local Action Group), Eco Hvar and the Agency for the Management of the Starigrad Plain. The aim was to gain an overview of land usage, and to gather information as to what the landowners think is needed to improve conditions in this historic field layout.

Donkeys grazing on the Plain, 2nd June 2014.
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Eco Environment News feeds

  • UK to ban bee-killing pesticides but highly toxic type could still be allowed

    Ministers set out plans for outlawing neonicotinoids but considering application by farmers to use Cruiser SB

    Bee-killing pesticides are to be banned by the UK government, as ministers set out plans to outlaw the use of neonicotinoids.

    However, the highly toxic neonicotinoid Cruiser SB could be allowed for use next year, as ministers are considering applications from the National Farmers’ Union and British Sugar.

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  • ‘You won’t find the real criminals here’: a Just Stop Oil activist in jail at Christmas

    Protester Anna Holland says their shock at being behind bars was quickly followed by a stronger feeling of power

    Anna Holland, 22, was one of two young peoplefrom Just Stop Oil who threw tomato soup overa sunflowers painting by Vincentvan Gogh – one of thehighest-profile climate protests of recent years. The painting was not damaged, although there was damage to the frame.Holland was sentenced to 20 months in prison.They sent this letter to the Guardian abouttheir experiencebehind bars.

    It was a shock at first that the judge had gone to the extreme of our sentence. The first few days and nights in prison were hard but also such an education. So many of the women I have met here are in prison because they were not properly protected by the state, so they have taken me under their wing. I have been looked after, taught the ways of prison, not by the staff but by the other prisoners. It is like nothing I had expected and it is completely overwhelming – but also surprising how quickly I found myself falling into the daily routine.

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  • Ash dieback experts identify shoots of hope for Britain’s threatened trees

    As the deadly fungal disease tightens its grip, scientific efforts to protect ash trees are advancing

    The UK is home to more than 100m mature ash trees, and every spring tells the same grim story: leaves emerge, wither and drop within weeks, as ash dieback disease tightens its grip.

    Millions stand dead in woodlands and hedgerows across the British Isles, with an estimated 2bn seedlings and saplings at risk. Many experts have long feared the future of this cherished, ecologically important native tree hangs in the balance.

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  • CO2 emissions from new North Sea drilling sites would match 30 years’ worth from UK households

    New research comes as dozens of small potential fields have received some form of license from the government

    Potential new North Sea oil and gas fields with early stage licences from the UK would emit as much carbon dioxide as British households produce in three decades.

    The finding has led to calls to the government to reject demands from fossil fuel producers for the final permits needed to allow their operations to go ahead.

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  • Blob-headed fish and amphibious mouse among 27 new species found in ‘thrilling’ Peru expedition

    Scientists surprised to find so many animals unknown to science in Alto Mayo, a well-populated region

    Researchers in the Alto Mayo region of north-west Peru have discovered 27 species that are new to science, including a rare amphibious mouse, a tree-climbing salamander and an unusual “blob-headed fish”. The 38-day survey recorded more than 2,000 species of wildlife and plants.

    The findings are particularly surprising given the region’s high human population density, with significant pressures including deforestation and agriculture.

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  • Country diary: This ‘unprofitable land’ could hardly be richer | Phil Gates

    Teesdale, North Pennines: In this stretch between farmland and riverbank, the plant life is thick, and harbouring legions of insects and larvae

    The poet Molly Holden celebrated edgelands like this footpath, where the passage of the plough never quite reaches. “The pieces of unprofitable land,” she wrote, “are what I like best.” The narrow path, between steep riverbank and farmland, links uncultivated triangular corners of the field, each headland bordered by the sweeping arc of waterlogged tractor ruts and hedges. They’re refuges for mugwort, docks, goosegrass and brome grass, now withered, weatherbeaten and run to seed, providing food for birds and replenishing the soil seed bank for the future. These are Holden’s “memories of former wilds”, the frontline in the annual tussle between arable and nature.

    In winter the frontier, tilled and seeded, moves close to the edge of the path; any closer and the tractor might topple down a gully. Within weeks a counteroffensive begins, as red dead-nettle and speedwell seedlings appear among regimented rows of sprouted wheat. Come spring, the wild bridgehead advances further into arable territory. By next summer this path will be bordered with wild flowers, concealing runs of field mice that pilfer ripening grain.

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  • ‘I didn’t realize the role rice played’: the ingenious crop cultivation of the Gullah Geechee people

    Researchers in North Carolina used underwater sonar to map a system created by enslaved people centuries ago

    As a former deputy state underwater archaeologist, Mark Wilde-Ramsing can’t help but look down. While rowing around North Carolina’s Eagles Island, at the tip of the Gullah Geechee corridor, he noticed signs of human-made structures, visible at low tide. Though he’d retired, he was still active in the field and knew his former agency hadn’t recorded the structures – which meant he had come across something previously undocumented. The next step was figuring out exactly what he’d found.

    Wilde-Ramsing knew the area had once been full of rice fields. His neighbor, Joni “Osku” Backstrom, was an assistant professor in the department of environmental sciences at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington whose specialty was shallow-water sonar, and he had the skills and technology to explore the area. Using a sonar device, the duo detected 45 wooden structures in the river, and the remote sensing tool allowed Backstrom and Wilde-Ramsing to acoustically map the canal beds.

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  • ‘We’re still in survival mode’: anger persists in Valencia weeks after floods

    Wreckage from Spain’s worst natural disaster this century may have been cleared but life for many remains in disarray

    The warm Valencia air, still thick with dust and carrying a residual note of mud and damp concrete, begins to reek on the approach to the roadside dump where diggers toil, gulls scavenge and the detritus of countless everyday lives rises in mounds.

    Almost two months on, the legacy of the worst natural disaster to hit Spain this century is equally evident in the oranges rotting on the trees, in the tens of thousands of cars stacked in makeshift graveyards, and in the fatigue of all those who still queue daily for food, nappies and toilet roll.

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  • Don’t be a beach bum: how to reduce your environmental footprint in the sand

    Here are the simplest ways to have a sustainable summer holiday

    With Australia’s love of an annual beach holiday comes a revolving door of new “must have” gear: sunshades, blow-up toys, fold-out chairs and endless gadgets to keep us entertained.

    But how much of it do we really need, and what are the simplest ways to reduce your environmental footprint in the sand?

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  • Time to be shellfish: why the UK should go back to feasting on oysters and mussels

    Popular in Victorian times, they are sustainable, a good source of protein and brilliant for biodiversity, say those championing the bivalves

    A splash of white wine, a handful of basil leaves and a few minutes preparation are all it takes to transform mussels that 24 hours ago were filtering seawater off the south Devon coast, into a delicious starter.

    At the training kitchen in London’s oldest fish market, Billingsgate, in Poplar, we learn that fresh mussels require two vital preparation steps that the vacuum-packed, cooked variety don’t: “debearding” or pulling off the “byssus” thread that attaches the shell to rocks and other substrate, and the discarding of any with broken or open shells

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