Cres-Lošinj
The Cres-Lošinj Archipelago in the Northern Adriatic covers an area of 510 km² with a resident population of just under 11.000.
The main islands are Cres and Lošinj, and there are a number of smaller inhabited and uninhabited islands. The two biggest towns are Cres and Mali Lošinj, with many small villages scattered across the archipelago. Almost all land area and part of the marine area in the archipelago is protected under Natura 2000.
Heat waves and high intensity precipitation followed by drought periods are becoming more common in Cres-Lošinj. These climate impacts will cause increasing problems with drinking water; food production and wildfires that impact on the sensitive karst grasslands and vegetation. Water supplies are a key climate vulnerability and the unique Vrana Lake is an endangered source of freshwater for the islands of Cres, Lošinj and Ilovik. Sea level rise and coastal erosion are also major threats, and the historical part of the town of Cres already floods during exceptionally high tides.
The main economic activity in the archipelago is tourism, which is characterised by a pronounced seasonality. The island population generally quadruples over the summer. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the vulnerability of a tourism based-economy, yet the impacts were not so severe as to catalyse real urgency for a systemic change. Regional agriculture is mainly based on small scale olive growing and sheep breeding.
A tourism economy drives up house prices, even if these houses are empty for most of the year. The result is a housing shortage for long-term residents wanting to move to, or within, the islands. These challenges exacerbate the risk that the archipelago becomes less and less attractive to permanent residents, with the local community eventually giving way to transactional tourist visits. The opposite of a thriving and resilient Mediterranean community.
Heat waves and high intensity precipitation followed by drought periods are becoming more common in Cres-Lošinj. These climate impacts will cause increasing problems with drinking water; food production and wildfires that impact on the sensitive karst grasslands and vegetation. Water supplies are a key climate vulnerability and the unique Vrana Lake is an endangered source of freshwater for the islands of Cres, Lošinj and Ilovik. Sea level rise and coastal erosion are also major threats, and the historical part of the town of Cres already floods during exceptionally high tides.
The main economic activity in the archipelago is tourism, which is characterised by a pronounced seasonality. The island population generally quadruples over the summer. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the vulnerability of a tourism based-economy, yet the impacts were not so severe as to catalyse real urgency for a systemic change. Regional agriculture is mainly based on small scale olive growing and sheep breeding.
A tourism economy drives up house prices, even if these houses are empty for most of the year. The result is a housing shortage for long-term residents wanting to move to, or within, the islands. These challenges exacerbate the risk that the archipelago becomes less and less attractive to permanent residents, with the local community eventually giving way to transactional tourist visits. The opposite of a thriving and resilient Mediterranean community.
OTRA Island Development Agency is working with a network of local partners to confront and turn these trends towards a better future for the islands.
The Cres-Lošinj Clean Energy Transition Agenda presents the vision for the Cres-Lošinj archipelago to become smart and energy self-sufficient and to reach carbon neutrality by 2040. In 2020, the Towns of Cres and Mali Lošinj signed the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy. Investigations have since been launched into a range of potential energy projects on the islands, including seawater heat-pumps, solar projects, and options for energy capture from local waste treatment.
Development of a comprehensive plan for sustainable mobility and transport on the islands of Cres, Lošinj and Krk is also underway (as a European City Facility project). The plan will identify the best new mobility concepts for the islands, such as a network of micro-energy systems in private buildings that will be used to charge electric vehicles from renewable energy sources, and development of joint car/bike sharing systems.
In 2021 the citizen energy cooperative “Apsyrtidies” was established to serve as a platform for raising funds from the local community to invest in the energy transition of the Cres/Lošinj archipelago.
These are good foundations to accelerate transformation of the Cres-Lošinj archipelago. Much work still needs to be done and local capacity needs to be built to turn potentials into action at speed and scale.