Dubrovnik-Neretva County, renowned for the City of Dubrovnik, grapples with tourism challenges affecting its UNESCO-listed Old City. This study advocates for promoting less-explored inland areas to ease the strain on the heritage site and alleviate coastal tourist pressure. By diversifying tourism and supporting sustainable rural development, the region can spur economic growth, foster local businesses, and improve infrastructure through EU and national funding. The research explores financial investments in less-developed areas, emphasizing sustainable tourism practices for socio-economic and environmental benefits. The analysis highlights the project’s positive impact on sustainable tourism development inland, preserving natural heritage, and fostering economic benefits for local communities. According to the cost–benefit analysis, the proposed idea outperforms all alternatives with new attractions and enhanced infrastructure, contributing to overall municipal growth. External funding is crucial for viability, with a negative net income until 2040, offset by municipal support. Economic indicators justify social and economic benefits, emphasizing project resilience. The active tourism centre project, emphasizing eco-friendly outdoor activities, highlights the role of cost–benefit analysis in rural tourism infrastructure investment, recommending external funding for success.

The problem of marine litter is becoming more visible in Croatia. The main goal of this paper is to investigate issues related to marine litter in the Croatian Adriatic, from the current state of sources and quantities of marine litter, through marine litter monitoring and legislation, to stakeholders’ awareness about the marine litter issue in Croatia. The topic was designed as a case study and was covered by the method of document analysis and the survey method. Quantitative analysis was done for involved stakeholders and their level of interest. The mean value method and method for stakeholder mapping for marine areas was used. In addition, an exhaustive review of Croatian marine litter studies was done. The results of the research indicate that our knowledge about marine litter sources and quantities in the Croatian Adriatic is still quite scarce and that the stakeholders in Croatia have a moderate level of interest in the marine litter issue. Conclusions indicate that in Croatia particular attention is committed to strengthening both bilateral and multilateral relations with the neighboring countries given the transboundary nature that allows marine litter to spread over long distances.

The paper examines a paradigmatic example of post-conflict economic development of Vukovar, Croatia. It represents a pertinent case study for localities encountering analogous challenges, most notably urban areas in Ukraine in the near future. The war that broke out in 1991 brought significant human casualties, population displacement, and extensive destruction of residential, social, and economic infrastructure. The completion of the peaceful reintegration of Vukovar into Croatia’s legal system in 1998 marked the beginning of the socio-economic revitalization process. The research scrutinizes the primary impediments and prospects for Vukovar’s economic growth, probing why substantial investments in reconstructing housing, transport, communal infrastructure, and fiscal incentives for businesses have not paralleled its economic performance. It concentrates on the local business climate and influential factors as potential explanations for this discrepancy. The topic was designed as a case study and was covered by document analysis, survey method, and semi-structured interviews. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, the study collates perspectives from entrepreneurs and business support institutions. The results confirmed that reconstruction of housing and social infrastructure is necessary, but more conditions are needed for successful post-conflict economic development, and that the business climate in lagging local units highly depends on state- and locally designed business-support measures.

This chapter deals with the process of Europeanisation of the EU green agenda in Croatia. The Europeanisation of the green agenda relates to domestic policy-making, the adoption of EU policies and their implementation. The Europeanisation of the green agenda and its main challenges are identified based on identifying the key policies, their implementation on the EU level and their transposition into Croatian national legislation. The process is evaluated on policy, legislative and normative levels. The European Green Deal is the framework for the EU green agenda. It includes policies related to climate, energy, buildings, circular economy and new industrial policy, mobility, agriculture, zero pollution, biodiversity, financing and fair transition. Significant regional differences exist within Croatia, and some progressive local communities foster a green agenda with limited support from the central-level government. As a result, it is necessary to raise citizens’ awareness and generate a bottom-up demand for green reforms to boost the interest of key policy stakeholders. <!----> <!----> <!----> <!---->

This book demonstrates that a holistic approach to the bioeconomy is essential if it is to achieve its full potential in driving economic growth while simultaneously providing ecological, social and technological benefits. Definitions of the ‘bioeconomy’ vary but in general it incorporates the ways in which societies manage and distribute their primary or secondary biological resources for further use in everyday life (e.g. food, materials, and energy). The classical sectors related to the bioeconomy have therefore been agriculture, forestry and aquaculture, now extended to include bioenergy, biofuels, biochemicals, and other processing and service industries. There are also related new concepts such us the blue economy, the green economy, and the circular economy. This book integrates these definitions, sectoral analyses and new concepts into a fully rounded study of the bioeconomy. It is argued that the key aims in the coming years have to be the harmonization of public policies between different sectors, regulation of legislative framework for the bioeconomy, and clear communication of these issues. In particular, the book argues that a strengthening of the monitoring and evaluation of the impacts of the bioeconomy on society is an essential starting point. For this to be effective, appropriate indicators need to be established and defined for the monitoring of the effects of these resilient policies related to bioeconomy and their impact on local and regional development and quality of life. This book will be essential reading for anyone interested in the bioeconomy including students and scholars of ecological economics, environmental economics, sustainability, innovation, and regional development.

Green urban renewal requires coordination among climate adaptation, water management, biodiversity conservation, and spatial planning within coherent policy frameworks. This study presents a structured analytical framework for evaluating how nature-based solutions (NbS) and natural water retention measures (NWRM) are represented in local and national policy documents relevant to green urban renewal, using Zagreb, Croatia, as a case study. The analysis combined qualitative content analysis, semi-quantitative assessment, and comparative policy-coherence analysis of strategic, planning, and legislative documents. Recent strategic documents showed the broadest documentary coverage of climate adaptation, biodiversity conservation, sustainable water management, and green infrastructure, whereas legislative and statutory planning documents contained more function-specific provisions. Economic feasibility, adaptive management, and several implementation-related provisions were less consistently represented. Cross-level comparison further identified stronger alignment between several recent Zagreb strategic documents and national climate and water policy documents. The study contributes a structured adaptation of IUCN-derived criteria for cross-level policy-document analysis; its applicability in other legal and urban contexts requires comparative testing.