Saving the Natural and Cultural Treasures of the Pelegrin Peninsula on the Island of Hvar, Croatia

On the Natural and Cultural Beauty of the Island of Hvar An Initiative to Save Pelegrin Peninsula

The peninsula Pelegrin on the island of Hvar, a magnificent natural forest preserve, already twice proposed for protection as a natural park, site of invaluable cultural monuments of great archeological and historical significance, is being prepared for devastation. In the course of the next ten years, if developers and vested interests gain sway, where once stood magnificent forests, and unique archeological and prehistoric monuments from the neolithic and bronze age luxury villas, six 150-200 bed hotels, a golf-course, "private" roads, "private" beaches and marinas will dominate the remnants of the once beautiful landscape. They form part of plans for the exclusive luxury resort "Floriana", drawn up by the English developer Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo for the Italian businessman and real estate magnate Riccardo Mazzucchelli [usp. http://www.florianaonline.com/ ]. Mazzucchelli, manager of the existing concession on the former state hunting grounds on the Pelegrin peninsula, already considers a large section of the peninsula his private property. Just last August he was quoted by the official newsletter of the Italian consulate in Split as saying, he would not be disappointed if plans for 'Floriana' fell through, because he would "still have several kilometers of coast on the most beautiful sea in the world' (Archivio terzo trimestre 2005, 17. Aug. 2005.) "Private" roads and beaches are not, however, a possibility according to the law of the Republic of Croatia, making Mazzuchelli's claims preposterous and a direct offense to the Croatian state. It is therefore imperative that the question of ownership rights on the Pelegrin peninsula be investigated, since the sale of any part of the area in question would be in direct violation of the moral and legal obligation of the Hvar City officials entrusted with its supervision, and a betrayal of the public interest of the national and international community in protecting this unique natural preserve and the invaluable archeological, historical and cultural heritage of humanity located in it.

Mazzuchelli's business partner Kolic was already in blatant violation of existing laws when, more than ten years ago, he purchased the concession for the operation of the former hunting grounds and proceeded with an attempt to transform the peninsula into an exclusive resort. Kolic closed the peninsula to the public, refusing to allow the local population as had previously been the case to collect firewood in the forest; he introduced non-native species for hunting purposes and illegally built a helicopter landing pad for his exclusive guests; his guards even opened fire on fishermen who entered the little bay where the hunting lodge is located. The devastating fires which broke out near the Pelegrin peninsula in June 1996 may well have been the reaction of some of more short-sighted members of the disgruntled local population to the arrogance of the Pelegrin concession-holders. Existing law was also violated when the two preexisting structures, originally intended for purposes of hunting and forestry, were transformed into a luxury tourist villa and the private residence of Riccardo Mazzuchelli, who had since purchased the concession from his Croatian business partner. The lock and chain on the gate of the public hunting grounds witness to the fact that Mazzuchelli has not given up on plans for the realisation of the luxury resort 'Floriana', even though those plans violate the provisions of the Croatian Law on Protection of Natural Resources. Mazzuchelli already uses internet web-sites to advertise for exclusive vacations in "private" Villa Floriana on the bay with its " own private beach," located in "a Natural Park of 600 hectares securely fenced throughout" (cf. http://www.chicretreats.com/hoteldetails.asp?idHotel=90&Hotel=Villa\%20Floriana\%20(weekly\%20rental http://www.vladi-private-islands.de/rent/site/html/cms_de-pub_detail_miet_en-277/Villa+Floriana+Estate.html), a statement which in itself is a scandal for Croatia and Croatian lawmakers.

Present efforts to alter zoning plans to allow the construction of a golf course (from a geological, hydrological, and ecological perspective a complete fiasco) near the opening of the Pelegrin peninsula are apparently an attempt to provide the "little gate" through which developers can push the big project for the 'Floriana' resort. Plans to expand the urbanization zone onto the Pelegrin peninsula to allow the construction of an "elite" luxury tourist resort, however, are not only short-sighted, but a blatant violation of Hvar's moral and legal obligation to protect the unique Pelegrin preserve, and moreover run counter to the recommendations of experts for sustainable economic and ecological development and revitalization of the island economy and culture. The development of the tourist trade since the sixties failed to improve the demographic situation on the island and failed to provide a source of regular, permanent employment for the island's population, proving that dependence on a single branch of production/services cannot succeed in assuring stable economic development. On the contrary, the undifferentiated transition from the primary to the tertiary sectory, the abandonment of agriculture and the failure to develop employment opportunities in other sectors, have led to high unemployment rates, minimal or no opportunities for advancement and a marked increase in social problems that accompany a depressed economic situation (drug abuse, alcohol abuse, family problems, etc.). The proposed plan for urban development (PPPU) of the city of Hvar from November, 2005, as well as the experts and authors of the magnificent anthology and compendium of scholarly and scientific research, Otok Hvar ("The Island of Hvar") from 1995 (Miro A. Mihovilovic, ed. and colleagues, Zagreb: Matice Hrvatske) recommend a completely different path to revitalization: conservation of vital resources, especially those central to the sustainable development of tourism, i.e. strict protection of natural preserves and cultural monuments, the sea itself and coastline; diversification of economic activity, and revitalization of traditional sources of employment such as agriculture, fishing, shipping and sailing, retail and trade, trade and crafts, services, clean, small industry, and other activities specific to the island's culture and history, along with the now disproportionately favoured branches of hotelry and restaurant services. One branch of economic activity yet to be appreciated for its genuine long-term developmental potential and as an untapped source of economic advancement is state-of-the-art waste management and recycling!

As the proposal for urban planning puts it: "Probably on no single island in Dalmatia are gathered so many different species of flora and fauna as on the island of Hvar," and probably in no single place on the island is there a preserve of plant and animal species so uniquely rich and varied as on the peninsula Pelegrin, nowhere on the island exists a comparable jewel of nature as this.

Urban planning in Hvar and elsewhere in Croatia is subject to legal obligation to above all ensure the protection of areas already proposed for protection under the existing Law on the Protection of Nature, or for registration in the national Register of Protected Natural Sites at the Ministry of the Environment. On the territory of Hvar City and Commune the Pakleni Islands and the island Galesnik are already listed as significant natural preserves; the park of the Fransciscan Monastery in Hvar with its cypresses is listed in the category of horticultural monument. In the zoning plans (Prostornom Planu) for the commune of Hvar from 1992, Pelegrin peninsula was also proposed as a protected natural site in the category of a significant natural preserve. The zoning plan for the county of Split and Dalmatia also includes a proposal for the protection of the peninsula Pelegrin. THESE PROPOSALS NEVER REACHED THE RESPONSIBLE ORGANS OF THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT! Any zoning decisions contrary to the proposal to declare Pelegrin a protecte site constitute, NEVERTHELESS, a violation of national and international public interest in the preservation of this unique natural preserve. БNY attempt to transform ANY part of the Pelegrin peninsula for the purposes of tourism is therefore unacceptable.

Not only its value as a natural preserve, but also the enormous cultural and historical significance of the Pelegrin peninsula make its designation as a protected national monument absolutely imperative. The great significance of the sites on the Pelegrin peninsula, first demonstrated by Hvar's native son and renowned archeologist Prof. Grga Novak, was reiterated by another of Hvar's world-class scholars, archeologist Prof. Marin Zaninovic, in his contributions to the monumental work OTOK HVAR. As far back as neolithic times, sailors and inhabitants of the islands used the sea-routes which connect Hvar and the Adriatic islands with the Italian coast, leaving their trace in the bays and caves of Hvar. Of those caves, the sites of the greatest archeological significance are GRABAC and MARK'S CAVE; "in the deeper layers of Mark's Cave are preserved the oldest traces of neolithic times on the Adriatic and the Mediterannean." In the time of the Greek diaspora, when Greek emigrants from the island of Paros in the Aegean founded the Greek polis Pharos on the site of present-day Stari Grad, the harbours Vela Garka (whose name stems from its significance for the Greek sailors), Duga, and Parja (from 'Paros' or 'Pharos'), provided an ideal haven for ships seeking shelter from unfavourable winds. Already in the time of the Micenean Greeks and perhaps even thousands of years before, this was a favourite route for navigating the Adriatic, because of the string of islands stretching like stepping stones across this section of the Adriatic and providing continuous visual contact with land from the Peljesac peninsula all the way to the Italian coast. Here the ancient Greek mariners sheltered their boats from the South wind and the Northeaster. Above in Mark's Cave, Illyrian shepherds kept watch and traded with their Greek neighbors, providing food, water and safe passage on foot across the narrow Pelegrin peninsula to the harbour on the opposite side of the island today's city of Hvar!

Mark's cave and other archeological sites like it present a wealth of untapped potential for the sustainable development of park tourism, and it is a crying shame that the exploitative forms of development advocated by corrupt investors and the government officials who stand to profit from them deliberately ignore and attempt to cover over these possibilities. The adequate presentation of these caves to visitors in the form of historical and cultural exhibits, however, would serve to acquaint a broader public with the great historical and scientific significance of the archeological sites of the Pelegrin peninsula and the island of Hvar as a whole sites whose findings date to a time when other parts of Europe had yet to approach the level of cultural development characteristic for the region!

Adequate preservation of ALL of the natural and cultural treasures of the island of Hvar is desperately, urgently needed, just as is the development of well-planned and sustainable types of cultural and ecological tourism. There is an urgent need to attract the attention of the national and international public to the unique cultural heritage of the entire island of Hvar, as well as that of the islands of the Croatian Adriatic as a whole, TO THEIR IRREPLACEABLE NATURAL AND CULTURAL MONUMENTS, AND TO DESPERATE ATTEMPTS BY A FEW TO PRESERVE THAT HERITAGE FROM THE RUIN AND DEVASTATION WHICH IS ADVANCING DAILY AS A RESULT OF HUGE PRESSURE FROM DEVELOPERS AND INVESTORS.

One example of the possibilites for sustainable development is Hvar Theatre, whose significance for the tradition of the dramatic arts is little known outside Hvar and Croatia. Hvar theatre, built 1612, is at least equal in importance to the original Globe Theatre (built 1599, destroyed 1613 by fire; rebuilt in 1614 and destroyed again 1644), with the added significance of being built and intended from the start as a permanent, covered theatre serving as official municipal theatre to the the city itself. As such, Hvar would be an ideal location for the founding of an annual international theatre festival and competition, where visiting theatre groups could present the best of contemporary dramatic works and the greatest works of the worlds' literary and dramatic traditions. In this context, the renovation of Hvar theatre becomes the symbol of a renaissance of the municipal theatre and the tradition of theatre arts in Europe as a whole.

The expansion of apartment and tourist settlements on the island of Hvar is already straining the infrastructure to the limits. Along with a lack of adequate roads, water and electricity, the complete lack of sewage filtration represents an ecological time-bomb and already poses an imminent threat of environmental catastrophe and a present danger to public health. A particular characteristic of the geological structure of the island are Quaternary strata of certain fields and harbours, which could serve as collecting basins for subterranean water sources. Those strata, however, and the possibility of obtaining water from them have yet to be adequately studied. In order to enable adequate demarcation of water protection areas and to ensure the safety of existing water sources on the island itself, it is therefore imperative to conduct a systematic geological and hydrological survey of the entire territory of the island of Hvar using state-of-the-art methods and to prohibit further expansion of urban zones and of the road system and place an absolute moratorium on new urbanisation until such time as impartial scientific investigation of potential water sources and water protection areas has been completed.

The existing infrastructure of the City of Hvar is characterised, according to the report of the proposed plan for urban zoning, by a disproportion between the City of Hvar and other parts of the Hvar communal district, both in respect of the number of inhabitants and with regard to existing communal and urban services and institutions. Thus, in Hvar are concentrated more or less all social and public institutions and services, while in the villages of Brusje, Velo Grablje, Milna and Sveta Nedilja there are only a church, graveyard and a store offering basic provisions, in Sveta Nedilja a regional school. The villages Brusje and Velo Grablje have significant potential for development, and it is especially vital to consider their potential for the accommodation of services and public institutions which should not additionally burden Hvar City . As regards the creation of new residential zones, if that should prove necessary according to the demographic picture of the permanent local population, efforts should be concentrated on resettlement of the abandoned villages of Velo Grablje, Malo Grablje and Zarace, because of their untapped potential for development of sustainable rural tourism and high quality living conditions.

The City of Hvar, which piece by piece has sold off nearly all of its original property, including the exceptionally lucrative hotel chain Suncani Hvar (for information on the new Belgian-based ownership cf. http://www.orcogroup.com/ ), is faced with enormous tasks and extremely limited means to surmount them. The city, in fact, now owns little more than the riviera itself, Hvar Theatre, the ruined Church of St. Mark location of the Archeological Museum of Hvar the former summer residence of the poet Hanibal Lucic (now Hvar Heritage Museum), the town fortress, and the city dump, which because of unregulated and uncontrolled dumping of dangerous waste (in particular, an unspecified large number of room refrigerators from the renovation of the Suncani Hvar hotel chain) recently caught fire in its deep layers, which fire the city is still desperately trying to bring under control with insufficient funds, land and technological means to do the job. The City of Hvar, which has nothing else left to sell, has apparently decided, with the aid of ever-present advocati diaboli, i.e. investors, developers and their lobbyists in government circles, to sell its soul.

Croatia is a country rich in natural and cultural resources, a country which has the potential to become a "little Switzerland" in its own right; and the island of Hvar has the potential to be its showpiece IF its native inhabitants succeed in retaining a reasonable degree of ownership of their own land and heritage, a condition seriously threatened by misconceived plans for urban development, by the continuing excalation in the sale of property to non-native temporary residents for the purpose of building vacation homes, by the corresponding exodus of native residents from their patrimony and the resulting skewed and unnatural demographic situation in Hvar's residential zones. Hvar, like Croatia as a whole, needs economic development, but it must be sustainable development, planned, directed and carried out according to reasonable, farsighted reflection on the needs of the local, permanent population and the available resources; Hvar needs progress, but a kind of progress that is ecologically and morally defensible.

The only morally acceptable solution for the Pelegrin peninsula is to declare it a protected natural preserve ("park prirode" or "zaticen reservat"), or better yet, a national park. A park such as this would be the pride of the Republic of Croatia and its people. It would serve the international community as an example of farsightedness and wise and timely decision-making with regard to sustainable development and protection of natural and cultural resources. Not only is urgent protection of Pelegrin's natural resources required; it is imperative to place all archeological, historical and cultural sites including the harbours Vela Garska, Duga and Parije, the caves, fertile meadows, burial mounds and water collecting basins ("lokve") - on the Pelegrin peninsula under strict and permanent protection. In this spirit, we the undersigned, have launched a petition, containing the following demands for the rescue of Pelegrin peninsula:

1) the inscription of Pelegrin peninsula in the register of significant natural preserves of great value, which deserve "special protection because of their biological and scenic diversity, because of their sensitivity or because of their scientific, scholarly, cultural, aesthetic, educational, economic and other public interest" (Republic of Croatia Law on the Protection of Nature);

2) the designation of the Pelegrin peninsula in its entirety, together with all its bays, meadows and woods, as a natural park ("park prirode");

3) the inscription of Mark's cave, and the other caves and caverns of the Pelegrin peninsula, in the registry of protected archeological monuments and the designation of the harbours Vela Garka, Mala Garka, Duga i Parije, as well as the historical trails the peninsula to Hvar as historical and cultural monuments of great significance to the national and international public interest;

4) transparent, publicly conducted inspection of the area of the Pelegrin peninsula by responsible government inspection agencies and impartial non-governmental environmental protection advocacy groups in order to determine the present status and use of the peninsula, as well as the realignment of present activities on the peninsula with the spirit and letter of the Law on the Protection of Nature and the Law on the Protection of Cultural Resources of the Republic of Croatia;

5) the taking of all relevant legal action against individuals or legal entities responsible for violating any and all legal statutes relating to this unique natural and cultural preserve, as well as a legally binding audit of all previous action taken regarding use or sale of property on the peninsula and the institution of legal proceedings against all responsible individuals and institutions having violated legal restrictions concerning the protection of the natural and cultural heritage of the Republic of Croatia, or having caused significant or permanent damage to a unique and ecologically sensitive natural reserve of international importance for world heritage (cf. Law on the Protection of Nature - Zakon o zatiti prirode, иlanak 42. stavak 2. i 3.);

6) restoration of the Pelegrin peninsula to its original state before infliction of damage to its natural or cultural resources and/or illegal use of its localities, and the undertaking of measures to prevent further damage and allow for repair of damage which may have already occurred due to illegal use of the peninsula;

7) a binding impartial decision by the responsible courts permitting the permanent confiscation of protected areas of significant value and localities as defined by the Law on the Protection of Nature and the Law on the Protection of Cultural Resources from individuals having obtained their use or possession in violation of the spirit and letter of existing legal restrictions.

Dr. sc. Marie-Йlise Zovko
Institute of Philosophy, Zagreb

Prof. dr. sc. Marin Zaninovic
University of Zagreb

The text of this petition forms the basis for a petition now circulating inside Croatia. Since the natural and cultural sites concerned are monuments of significance to the cultural and natural heritage of the international community as a whole, the initiators online petition to be made available for signature by citizens and interested parties living outside Croatia's borders as well.

Pelegrin peninsula is just one example of the type of devastation now taking place up and down the Adriatic coast of Croatia as a result of widespread corruption among local and federal government officials and unbridled greed on the part of developers and investors. It wasn't long ago that one could speak of the Croatian Adriatic as one of the few places where natural and cultural treasures had been spared the sort of destructive and exploitive kind of development typical for the European coast of the Mediterranean. Soon that will be a thing of the past, if responsible agencies do not begin implementing the existing laws and regulations intended for their protection. Time has grown excruciatingly short, since the islands of the Croatian Adriatic hit the list of the top ten destinations on the Mediterranean, to save what by chance and historical circumstance has up till now escaped devastation .