Project duration: 09/2026 – 08/2027

Status: APPROVED

 

The Challenge

Pag Island’s agricultural biodiversity is quietly disappearing. Traditional farming produced locally adapted plant varieties suited to the island’s karst terrain, coastal climate, and scarce freshwater conditions. As older generations age and traditional land use declines, these varieties — and the knowledge of how to grow them — are being lost with no systematic effort to capture them. No community-level structure currently exists on the island to collect, preserve, or circulate local seeds. Once these varieties are gone, they cannot be recovered. This project addresses that gap before it becomes irreversible.

 

The Solution

The Seed Library of Pag Island establishes functioning seed libraries within four public libraries across Pag Island — in Kolan, Novalja, Pag and Povljana — as permanent community hubs for collecting, storing, and exchanging autochthonous and traditional plant varieties. Operating on a “borrow–grow–return” model, the project actively involves local farmers, gardeners, and residents in preserving the island’s agrobiodiversity and traditional ecological knowledge. Educational workshops, expert lectures, and intergenerational exchange events complement the seed library infrastructure. The project creates a replicable, self-sustaining model transferable to other Dalmatian islands.

 

Project Deliverables

• Establish the seed library system in the first months of the project by equipping all partner libraries with seed storage materials, labelling tools, a barcode catalogue, and a simple loan-tracking system

• Train library staff through a joint study visit to the City Library of Rijeka, where the team will learn from an established seed library model and adapt its methods to Pag Island

• Collect, prepare, and catalogue local seeds from community members, farmers, and gardeners, including cleaning, drying, labelling, and recording key growing information

• Run the borrow–grow–return cycle so that seeds can be borrowed, grown, and partially returned to the libraries, helping the collection grow over time

• Organise at least three public seed exchange events across the island to encourage wider participation and create visible community moments around the project

• Share seeds between libraries to diversify each collection and strengthen cooperation between the four participating locations

• Deliver educational activities between November and May, including workshops on seed saving, plant selection, and ecological growing, as well as expert lectures

• Include children, young people, and mixed-age groups in the programme, with sessions adapted for different audiences

• Support intergenerational learning by involving older residents as active contributors and co-facilitators, not only as participants

• Build a long-term community resource that preserves local agricultural knowledge and creates a practical model that can continue beyond the project period

 

Insight into the Organisation

KUD Bartul Kašić Kolan is a cultural and artistic society founded in 1978 in the village of Kolan on the island of Pag. For decades, it has been dedicated to preserving local traditions, including folk customs, carnival practices, and the unique “nakanat” style of singing. The society organizes performances, festivals, and cultural events, and has established vocal groups and an ethnographic collection. After periods of both strong activity and decline, it is currently experiencing a revival, with a renewed focus on engaging younger generations and safeguarding the area’s intangible cultural heritage.