During these last several months, through various posts, we introduced you to the story we create through the project „Water pearls of the Adriatic islands". In this blog you will not only be informed about the project, the goal of which is to assess the status of wetlands on Adriatic islands, you will also become a part of our story. Through the regularly published articles you'll be able to follow our field work and learn interesting facts about wetlands, their importance, endangerment, protection and their condition in Croatia, the region and in the world. For all who are interested in additional activities there will be an opportunity to actively be a part of our project.

Figure 1. Pond on Murter Island

 There have been talks about wetlands for years, mostly in a negative context. In the last 100 years their number has drastically fallen and because of that they are one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world. From ancient times the Mediterranean represented an area with a close connection between humans and wetlands which were very important for the development of civilizations. Some of the greatest civilizations, such as Egypt and Mesopotami,a originated on or near such areas which were water and food reservoirs and they enabled transport of materials and goods. They are important not only for people, but for animals and plants which permanently or occasionally live near or inside such water habitats, and also wetlands are very important for stopping floods and regulating the temperature of the surrounding area. You can watch a video about the importance of the wetlands from the „Wetlands Provide Priceless Services" initiative for preserving Mediterranean wetlands – MedWet on this link: MedWet video.

Figure 2. Pond on Šolta Island

Our island story begins on Murter and Šolta! After thorough planning in the office, we went on our first field research from 26 till 30 April 2017., to find wetlands on these two islands. We had the coordinates of these wetlands which we acquired during the winter months when we checked and marked them with the help from topographic maps and ortophoto images. This job was much easier with the help from already exsisting data and coordinates from CAEN (Croatian Agency for Environment and Nature) and Public Institution Priroda. Wetlands on islands are diverse, the most common ones being man-made or natural ponds, but there are also open cisterns, wet meadows, salt marshes, lakes, Mediterranean swamps etc. Follow this blog about travelling across the Adriatic islands an you will be familiarized with the diversity and natural heritage of wetlands.

Figure 3. Human influence on salt marsh on Murter Island

Weather conditions at the end of April weren't on our side, the rain and south-easternly wind aren't the best combination for fauna inventarization, so we did not find many species during this visit. Some of the most intersting ones we did find are: two species of amphibians, the European green toad (Bufotes viridis) and the European tree frog (Hyla arborea); reptiles near the wetlands, such as the European glass lizard (Pseudopus apodus), Dalmatian wall lizard (Podarcis melisellensis) and Balkan whip snake (Hierophis gemonensis); dragonflies such as the blue-tailed damselfly (Ischnura elegans) and lots of larvae which need to be identified. We also inventoried the aquatic vegetation and photographed all the habitats which we visited. Unfortunately we saw some negative anthropogenic influence: on Murter Island parts of salt marshes are filled in to expand the road and on Šolta Island we saw alien species in some ponds, mostly gold fish but also one invasive red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans).

Figure 4. European green toad - the most common amphibian on Adriatic islands

During the field work the locals were of great help in helping us find the wetlands and gather information about them. On Šolta we talked with one older gentleman who helped us determine if one of the ponds was temporary or permanent, how much water on average is in it during the year and he told us what purpose ponds had in the past and when was the last time they were cleaned and managed. The local population is, after all, the best source of knowledge about their island. We recorded four wetlands on Murter and 11 wetlands on Šolta.

Figure 5. Field work on pond on Šolta.

Besides te field work we also organized lectures for the children in Vjekoslav Kaleb Elementary School in Tisno and Grohote Elementary School in Grohote, Šolta. For the grown ups and every interested island residents we also organized a workshop in Baganelovica Community Center in Jezera, Murter, and Dom Kulture in Grohote, Šolta, with the goal of creating a web of volunteers on Adriatic islands. We would like to thank dr. sc. Marija Pandža for her enthusiasm and great desire to transfer knowledge about wetlands to the local kids on Murter. Also, Mirela Mijić, pedagogue, and Dragana Đurić, librarian, were of great help because they enabled every student to find out about the wetlands of Šolta and we are very grateful to Dinko Sule for his activism and help during our travels on Šolta.

Figure 6. Educational lecture in Grohote elementary school.

Our story continues on Dugi Otok Island, and Korčula follows soon after. With great impatience we await the newest stories of exploring the island wetlands, and organising workshops and lectures with local people.
Follow our stories and travel across the Adriatic islands with us!

Association Hyla became involved in the European Volunteer Service (EVS) Erasmus+ Programme in the begining of 2017 as a receiving and sending organisation. As a sending organisation we are in the position to connect young people of all professions between the ages of 18 and 30 with receiving organisations in countries registered with the EVS, facilitating the exchange of knowledge and experience among young people. On par with your interests choose a project and country where you would like to participate as a volunteer and contact us so we can help you organise the exchange. We would like to introduce programmes of two institutions:

1. Jugendwerk der AWO Württemberg

Project start: October 2017

Project duration: 12 months

Country: Germany

More about the project: Jugendwerk

2. Orfeas Organization

Project start: September 2017

Project duration: depending on the project

Country: Greece

 More about the project: Orfeas

For more information, contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Izašao je novi broj časopisa - Vol.2016_No.1.

Radove unutar časopisa možete skinuti ili na našim stranicama ili na stranicama portala znanstvenih časopisa Hrčak.

On the 2nd of February the whole world celebrates World wetlands day. Wetlands are one of the most endangered ecosystems in the whole Mediterranean and Europe in general. The most important convention which protects the wetlands of Europe is Ramsar convention, named after the Iranian city of Ramsar where it was signed in 1971. This important intergovernmental treaty represents the basic grounds for international cooperation of 154 signatory countries for protection and sustainable management of wetlands. According to the Ramsar convention there are 40 types of wetland habitats, including sea wetlands (bogs on the coasts, shallow barrier reefs), river estuaries, lakes and marshes by the lakes, streams and rivers, real swamps and artificially made wetlands such as saltworks, gravel pits and ponds.

Pond on the island of Pag with developed vegetation on its shores.

Karst ponds are the most important and most numerous wetlands. On lots of adriatic islands they are the only freshwater habitats and they are practically islands within islands. These are the only places on islands on which the rich freshwater flora and fauna like aquatic vegetation, aquatic insects (beetles, dragonflies) and amphibians can survive. With the disappearance of the ponds the large, almost unexplored diversity of plants and animals is lost.

Chalcolestes parvidens

In the past, the wetlands were considered unnecessary and sometimes even bad for human health. (the most famous example is the spreading of malaria via mosquitoes). They were heavily canalised, filled in, devastated and dried out. When the ecological awareness of the 20th century came to be, that's when the importance of the ponds became recognised.

Žmanska lakes - one of the largest intermittent lakes on Adriatic islands

Adriatic islands are irreplacable parts of the natural heritage of the Republic of Croatia. With over 1200 islands, islets and rocks, Croatia is one of the top countries of the world when it comes to the number of islands, and second in the Mediterranean, right behind Greece. There are only 48 inhabited islands but throughout the history that number was larger. When the people inhabited these islands they changed their look and adapted the karst terrain to their needs. Almost all adriatic islands are made of limestone and that's why surface waters are rare. To survive on the islands without much water people built wells, ponds and other water bodies. These ponds had different purposes, such as sources of drinking water for humans and their livestock, places to bath, washing clothes etc. Ponds lost their primary function of being a source of drinking water when the water system were built and when the shipping of water from the mainland via ships was organised. Ponds became obsolete and seemingly unnecesarry when people were beginning to leave the traditional island way of living, especially livestock farming. Habitats that strived for decades, even centuries, are now forgotten and deserted, sometimes even filled in and devastated on purpose. Even though they are protected through the Ramsar convention, disappearance and devastation of wetlands on adriatic islands is a common phenomenon.

Example of eutrofication - island Pag

During the last year Association Hyla in a cooperation with WWF Adria, Association BIOM, Croatian Biological Research Society and IUCN South-Eastern Europe, with the support of Ministry of environmental and nature protection and financed by the MAVA, Fondation pour la Nature, began one of the biggest projects about wetlands in Croatia ever. The main goal of the project is to further evaluate adriatic islands and especially wetlands on them. Even though the adriatic islands cover only 3259 squared kilometres (5 % of the whole area of Croatia), flora and fauna on them are extremely rich in species – over 60 % of butterflies, 35 % of amphibians and 70 % of reptiles of Croatia can be found there.

Emys orbicularis

The project is a continuation and sort of a replication of a project carried out by the WWF Greece during which the wetlands on the islands of Greece were listed and evaluated.
First phase of the project is evaluation of the wetlands on islands (primarily ponds) through the system of listing nad comparing todays situation and data from history. It is well known that the wetlands are disapearing but with this step we will for the first time ever get the current situation (primarily number) of wetlands on adriatic islands, and for every island separately. These results will be the basis for all future research and evalutaion of wetlands on the Adriatic and wider.

Bufo viridis

The second phase of the project is visiting the islands and evaluating the wetlands, in accordance to already developed methodology of WWF Greece and an additional methodology which will be developed for the evaluation and prioritisation of the most important wetlands on the islands and for every island separately. During our visits we will gather important data about flora and fauna of wetlands and get more knowledge about the biodiversity of islands. In this phase we will also make a web of volunteers, associations and schools which will be the key point for long-term protection and conservation of adriati wetlands.

Dugo polje pond - one of the largest wetland on the island of Dugi otok

During the next two years, through our professional and promotional activities our plan is to give the wetlands on adriatic island greater importance.