Oikon Ltd., Institute for applied ecology, Zagreb
- www.oikon.hr
- Address: Avenija Dubrovnik 6-8
- City: Zagreb
- Postal code: 10020
- Phone: +385 1 5507 100
- Fax: +385 1 5507 101
- CEO: Dalibor Hatić
- Contact person: Dalibor Hatić
- Services:
Environment protection, nature protection, sustainable development, forestry and applied forest research, agriculture, ecological modeling, marine biology, landscape ecology, geostatistics, remote sensing, GIS
Oikon Ltd. business activities range from environmental consultancy services to provision of integral specialist studies and research in the field of applied ecology. Professional services delivered by Oikon include:
1) Program and project management services (overall life-cycle project management; advisory and technical support for EU or globally funded tenders)
2) Environmental Protection (reports, studies, assessments, monitoring)
3) Industrial Ecology (reports, studies, assessments, design and supervision)
4) Environmental Medicine (research, ecotoxicology, bioindication)
5) Renewable Energy Resources (reports, studies, resource assessments)
6) Nature Protection (reports, studies, assessments, research, inventories, monitoring)
7) Natural Resource Management (forestry, game management and agriculture: management plans, inventories and assessments)
8) Landscape Architecture (analysis, planning, design, visualisation)
9) IT and GIS (consulting, application development, implementation and support, training)
10) Remote sensing and Telemetry (aerial/satellite, analysis, training)
11) Environmental modelling (geostatistics, spatio-temporal modelling, raster GIS)
History
Oikon Ltd. – Institute for Applied Ecology was founded in 1997 in Zagreb (Croatia), by a group of natural scientists who shared a vision of creating a multidisciplinary think-tank / consultancy firm / R&D institute, capable of providing effective and efficient solutions to increasingly important challenges in the areas of nature and environment protection, and sustainable management of natural resources. Since its foundation in 1997, while maintaining and constantly making effort on improving high quality standards set by its first projects, range of Oikon’s expertise and services has also constantly been growing. Starting with forestry and advanced ecological and GIS raster modeling, which is still important part of the Oikon competitive advantage, the area of competence first spread to include “green” environment sector and nature protection.
Soon after, advanced GIS raster modeling has grown to become full fledged IT department offering services in the area of environmental information systems and general GIS support, where GIS services have been supplemented by significant capacity and expertise in area of remote sensing.
Recognizing a great need for high quality environmental services in marine environment, at 2001 Oikon started developing its capacities in this area (new equipment and employees) and soon after has became one of the major providers of the environmental services (e.g. EIA, monitoring, ICZM) in this area in Croatia, too. Realizing that specialist study of high technical complexity will not be of great use if not combined with wider process of consultation and public participation, from 2002 Oikon has become more involved in the wider area of sustainable development, participative preparation of strategic environmental documents and studies (e.g. Environmental protection programmes, ICZM studies). This area of work is greatly enhanced by Oikon’s capacity and expertise in area of physical and landscape planning/designing. Finally, although from its very foundation Oikon has provided EIA services to all kind of developments (“from fish and stock farms, to highways and marine outfalls”), the most recent Oikon development is characterized by more regular projects in area of “brown” environment, including preparation of waste management plans, EIA for landfills, etc.
Today, with a core staff of 40 (5 PhD, 2 Mr.Sc., 26 BSc), with 6 registered research scientists, 8 certified engineers (architecture, landscape architecture, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, forestry) and 4 certified (and several uncertified but rather experienced) project managers, with backgrounds in 13 disciplines (Mathematics, IT, Physics, Geology, Biology - Ecology, Chemistry, Environmental Management, Economics, Agriculture, Forestry, Architecture, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering) and network of over 200 external consultants, with over 450 successfully implemented projects, with customers both in Croatia and abroad (UK, Bosnia, Romania, Albania, Cyprus), and projects financed through multi- and bilateral development agencies, OIKON is generally recognized as one of the leading environmental consultancies in Croatia – a valuable and reliable partner, an innovative provider of high quality solutions in multi- and inter-disciplinal areas of nature and environment protection, physical and landscape planning, application of GIS, RS & IT in the environment sector, and sustainable development planning and management.
