Eco Hvar

Caring for Hvar's Environment

Published in Environment

What inspired ECO HVAR for the environment

Caring for Hvar's Environment

 

The Island of Hvar is clean, relative to other places. Visitors always appreciate that, and many comment on it, although it is no more than they expect. After all, Hvar’s success as a tourist destination has depended on its reputation for clean land, sea and air.

By and large, the island’s good reputation is justified. But there is room for improvement. When I first started walking around the island’s countryside, many years ago, I was struck by two things. First, the amount of rubbish that was piled up here and there, although it was often hidden under bushes and undergrowth, and so not visible at first sight. Second, the surprising amount of herbicide that was used around the olive groves and vineyards. 

 

 

Two types of rubbish were evident, as everywhere in the supposedly civilized world: litter and rubble, the former spread by careless or uncaring individuals, the latter by irresponsible building firms. 

 

 

I am told that before there was organized rubbish collection across the island, it was the norm for household rubbish to be thrown into whatever space happened to be convenient, whether a neighbour’s dry well or some nearby ruined building. Now there are rubbish containers in every settlement, this problem has been lessened, although it is still in evidence here and there among islanders too set in their ways to change their habits.

 

Why do people, especially the young who are going to inherit this environment, drop litter? Take cigarette butts, for example. Most smokers are in the habit of discarding their fag-ends on the ground. Perhaps the thinking is that they are only small, so they don’t matter; or they will biodegrade; and/or they will do no harm. Many smokers also discard their cigarette packets on the ground, to join the more general litter created by the packaging from sweets, snack foods and drinks. The question of why this is happening becomes more complex when the littering is done by people, especially youngsters, right next to a rubbish bin.

 

When I lived in London, I routinely picked up litter as I walked my dogs through the local parks. I was sometimes thanked by people who witnessed this, especially by the park attendants. Here I do the same. I am not the only person to clear up rubbish from the environment. People who understand how important cleanliness is to Hvar’s future as a tourist destination are pleased and grateful. In recent years there has been an increase in actions to clean up beaches, paths and public places. The next major breakthrough will be to persuade people not to drop litter in the first place.

 

 

The use of pesticides surprised me as everyone I knew insisted that they farmed their land organically. It turned out not all of them were telling the truth. I have had interesting discussions with pesticide users over the years. Their reasoning ranges from “Well, it’s not really a poison” to “OK, it is a poison, but it’s the mildest possible and it’s perfectly safe” to “I have to use chemicals because it’s easiest and I don’t have time to do otherwise”. But the facts are that Hvar’s fields, notably the Stari Grad Plain, were cultivated naturally very successfully for centuries; the chemical pollution is damaging the soil, underground waters and the whole eco-structure of the island; and there is apparently a relatively high incidence of illnesses which might be attributable to pesticide use.

 

 

 

Of course, many people do farm their land without using pesticides. I hear that recently the dangers of pesticide use have been publicized on television. More people are turning to organic crop production, which is encouraging others to consider it. The wild flowers which brighten Hvar's countryside throughout the year are not only brilliantly beautiful, but essential to the island's ecology.

 

 

Hvar Island has stunning natural beauty and deserves to be clean. Any kind of pollution is unacceptable and harmful in all kinds of ways. ECO HVAR for the environment was conceived to help Hvar realize its potential as the cleanest island on the Adriatic.

 

© Vivian Grisogono 2013

Related items

back to top
You are here: Home environment articles Caring for Hvar's Environment

Eco Environment News feeds

  • Ten English fire services tackled record number of grass, forest and crop fires in 2025

    Fire chief says summer, the UK’s hottest on record, was ‘one of the most challenging for wildfires that we’ve ever faced’

    Ten English fire services tackled a record number of grassland, woodland and crop fires during what was the UK’s hottest spring and summer on record, figures show.

    In total nearly 27,000 wildfires were dealt with by fire services in England during the prolonged dry weather of 2025, according to analysis by PA Media.

    Continue reading...

  • EU’s new ‘green tariff’ rules on high-carbon goods come into force

    The ‘border adjustment mechanism’ aims to create a level playing field while also encouraging decarbonisation

    The biggest shake-up of green trade rules for decades comes into force today, as companies selling steel, cement and other high-carbon goods into the EU will have to prove they comply with low-carbon regulations or face fines.

    But a lack of clarity on how the rules will be applied, and the failure of the UK government to strike a deal with Brussels over the issue, could lead to confusion in the early stages, experts warned.

    Continue reading...

  • Often brutal, always beautiful: the sea hounds of the Frisian Islands – in pictures

    For 10 years, the scientist and photographer Jeroen Hoekendijk has been observing pinnipeds such as seals and walruses on the fragile North Sea archipelago stretching along the Dutch, German and Danish coastline. A remainder of the now-drowned Doggerland, left behind after the ice age, the low-lying islands are an advance warning sign of the warming and rising seas of the climate crisis

    Continue reading...

  • Country diary: A novel way to farm this ‘black desert’ | Sara Hudston

    Greinton, Somerset Levels: Instead of drying the peat to make it fit for agriculture, a small group of farmers have decided to work with the wet

    It looks like nothing more than a few soggy acres of bulrush, brown and broken, edged by a striding line of electricity pylons. But this modest patch of reeds and weeds is at the forefront of a novel farming method that upends ideas about how to manage some of our wettest landscapes.

    For centuries people have worked to drain the Somerset Levels, transforming what was once a seasonal, shifting inland sea of islands, bogs and lakes into fertile pasture crossed by an intricate network of ditches, drains, rivers and rhynes. As usual in winter, December’s rain swept sheets of water across the lowest ground, leaving hedges and tracks sketched in broken lines on fallen sky.

    Continue reading...

  • It’s easy to feel powerless about climate chaos. Here’s what gives me hope | Nina Lakhani

    I’ve spent six years writing about environmental justice. The uncomfortable truth is that we’re not all in it together – but people power is reshaping the fight

    It’s been another year of climate chaos and inadequate political action. And it’s hard not to feel despondent and powerless.

    I joined the Guardian full time in 2019, as the paper’s first environmental justice correspondent, and have reported from across the US and the region over the past six years. It’s been painful to see so many families – and entire communities – devastated by fires, floods, extreme heat, sea level rise and food shortages. But what’s given me hope during these six years of reporting as both an environmental and climate justice reporter are the people fighting to save our planet from catastrophe – in their communities, on the streets and in courtrooms across the world.

    Continue reading...

  • ‘People are wrestling with the burden’: Japan pivots to focus on nuclear power ‘maximisation’ alongside renewables

    Post-Fukushima nuclear closures of dozens of reactors forced the country to rely heavily on imported fossil fuels

    Continue reading...

  • ‘You could see bones’: Families’ anguish over coastal erosion threat to Norfolk graves

    Bereaved relatives say delays over risks at village churchyards are causing distress and call for council action

    Families of people buried in graves vulnerable to coastal erosion say indecision over how to tackle the problem is causing them avoidable anguish about the final resting places of their loved ones.

    North Norfolk district council (NNDC) has identified three church graveyards in the villages of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being at risk of being engulfed by the sea in the coming decades.

    Continue reading...

  • From rent to utility bills: the politicians and advocates making climate policy part of the affordability agenda

    As the Trump administration derides climate policy as a ‘scam’, emissions-cutting measures are gaining popularity

    A group of progressive politicians and advocates are reframing emissions-cutting measures as a form of economic populism as the Trump administration derides climate policy as a “scam” and fails to deliver on promises to tame energy costs and inflation.

    Climate politics were once cast as a test of moral resolve, calling on Americans to accept higher costs to avert environmental catastrophe, but that ignores how rising temperatures themselves drive up costs for working people, said Stevie O’Hanlon, co-founder of the youth-led Sunrise Movement.

    Continue reading...

  • How the climate crisis showed up in Americans’ lives this year: ‘The shift has been swift and stark’

    Guardian US readers share how global heating and biodiversity loss affected their lives in ways that don’t always make the headlines

    The past year was another one of record-setting heat and catastrophic storms. But across the US, the climate crisis showed up in smaller, deeply personal ways too.

    Campfires that once defined summer trips were never lit due to wildfire risks. There were no bites where fish were once abundant, forests turned to meadows after a big burn and childhood memories of winter wonderlands turned to slush.

    Continue reading...

  • ‘I never imagined we could buy an island’: how a community saved Mexico’s Galápagos

    When developers began circling Espíritu Santo island in the 1990s, a private conservation effort saw them off. But today the Unesco site faces a new threat: mass tourism

    On a clear day over the Sea of Cortez, Espíritu Santo looks untouchable. Turquoise water laps at the shores of the island’s rocky coves; whale sharks cruise past snorkellers; seabirds caw over ancient cliffs. The pristine island and its Unesco-protected surroundings – informally called “Mexico’s Galápagos” – are a cocoon of biodiversity.

    Yet an increase in tourist numbers has led to growing unease among the island’s longstanding stewards, as environmentalists report a decline in the area’s marine life and call for stricter regulations.

    Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Eco Nature News feeds

Copyright © 2026 Eco Hvar. All Rights Reserved. Developed by Orion Informatika.