Problematic Golf Project on Cres Nearing Construction
Mašenjka Bačić
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Golf Matalda, a project by the company Jadranka, plans to build golf courses spanning over 300 hectares, raising concerns about irrigation issues.
Illustration created using generative AI: DALL-E
In a white kitchen, a woman in a red sweater sits at a table, holding reading glasses in one hand and a pen in the other. She gazes thoughtfully over blueprints labelled Matalda Resort Cres. The caption of the photo, posted on Instagram, read: »Working Mom’s Office.«
The »working mom« in question is Ivana Perenčević, the wife of Nikola Perenčević, one of the co-owners of Jadranka, a tourism giant based on Lošinj Island. In April this year, the company obtained a location permit for the construction of a golf complex on the island of Cres. Even so, the name Matalda Resort Cres suggests a large-scale tourism project.
Experts and activists have raised strong objections, most of which point out the environmental harm associated with golf course construction and argue that such developments often serve as a pretext for building tourist accommodations. However, the Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction, and State Assets, which issued the location permit, appears to have not been interested in these opinions.
Since the late 1990s, Croatian authorities have sought to promote golf course construction as a strategy to extend the tourist season. Despite these ambitions, few large-scale projects near the coast have materialised in the meantime. However, it seems that the Cres golf course could change that.
Jadranka, which transitioned from a joint-stock company to a limited liability company early last year, is owned by Nikola Perenčević and Tomislav Filipović, according to court records. Nikola is the son of Mihajlo Perenčević, while Tomislav is the brother of Krešimir Filipović. According to the latest information from 2022, the two men are key figures at Velesstroy, a Russian pipeline construction company deemed strategically important to the Russian government, which is why both appeared on the UK sanctions list in 2022.
The Perenčević and Filipović families own several villas on Lošinj. Oštro’s investigation, based on the Pandora Papers, revealed that, at the time, their assets ranged from luxury apartments in an elite Moscow neighbourhood to artworks valued at €500,000. By 2019, the Perenčević family’s assets were worth at least €650 million.
The Filipović family has relocated their residence to the United Arab Emirates, while Nikola and Mihajlo still formally reside in Croatia continuing to freely manage their Croatian assets, which have been detailed in Oštro’s multiple reports.
Apart from Jadranka, Nikola Perenčević is also the co-owner of Rektor LNG, a company specialising in cryogenic tanks for transporting liquefied gases. He also owns three companies that own real estate in Mali Lošinj, three villas in Zagreb’s neighbourhood of Tuškanac, and an apartment in Veli Lošinj.
His wife, Ivana Perenčević, co-owns Zumesco Hills, which is constructing a villa near Pazin, and she serves as the director of Valadria, a company owned by her father-in-law Mihajlo Perenčević. Their assets also include the small island of Krknjaš Mali near Trogir, purchased in 2003 for €1.3 million. Ms Perenčević herself owns properties on Pag and in Mali Lošinj.
Hotels, helipad, and a marina
Matalda, the area designated for Jadranka’s new project, is located in the southern third of Cres, on land owned by the Diocese of Krk. In 2014, the diocese signed a 50-year construction rights agreement with Jadranka.
Oštro obtained this document, which states that the Diocese of Krk wishes to retain ownership of Matalda while simultaneously »putting it to use in a way that benefits the broader community and the Diocese itself«.
On a plot spanning over 320 hectares, the diocese will lease the land to Jadranka for €120,000 annually, enabling the development of »attractive facilities that are objectively missing from the tourism offerings of Cres and Lošinj«, as stated in the agreement.
According to the location permit, Matalda Resort Cres will cover 317 hectares, more than half of which is earmarked for two golf courses, while hotels and villas will occupy around 10 hectares, as outlined in the Environmental Impact Study briefing. The project also includes building access roads, resort parking areas, a helipad, and a yacht marina.
The question of irrigation, a significant hurdle for golf course development in areas, such as the Adriatic islands, is to be addressed by constructing a desalination plant and a reservoir lake.
Futile warnings of environmental devastation
The possibility of constructing a golf course on Cres emerged in 2016 when the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County amended its Spatial Development Plan. It was decided then that the designated golf course area would be relocated from Ustrine to Matalda. In a plan adopted in 2018, the number of golf courses increased from one to two while the accommodation capacity was raised from 800 to 1,300 beds.
The county based its decision on two studies: »Golf Course Matalda in Punta Križa on Cres Island – Site Location Feasibility Study« and »Socio-economic Justification for the Development of the Matalda Golf Resort«, commissioned by Jadranka.
Already in 2017, Professor Aleksandar Racz from the University of Applied Health Sciences in Zagreb criticised these documents, stating that »the Matalda golf complex could lead to landscape devastation and biodiversity loss, as well as increased water and energy consumption for irrigation, potential depletion of underground freshwater reserves, and the bioaccumulation of artificial fertilisers, pesticides, insecticides, and herbicides«.
Despite these and other similar concerns, between 2019 and the present, the competent ministries approved the necessary documentation for this project.
Irrigation challenges on Karst and the islands
The Environmental Impact Study approved in 2021 states that »water from a 3-hectare, 6-metre-deep reservoir lake with a capacity of approximately 165,000 m³ will be used for irrigation. The reservoir would be replenished by rainwater, purified runoff water from roads, paved areas, and rooftops, partially treated wastewater, and desalinated seawater«. Daily water consumption is projected at 3,000–3,200 m³.
Professor Lidija Runko Luttenberger from the Faculty of Engineering in Rijeka told Oštro that desalination plants were suitable for meeting basic drinking water needs of the general population and that the use of renewable energy sources was a prerequisite, but not for irrigating golf courses.
»Desalination was resorted to here due to evident water supply issues in the island area, but the broader environmental impact on the exceptionally rich coastal ecosystem has not been comprehensively addressed, which severely endangers local biodiversity«, she said. Runko Luttenberger described the project’s reliance on desalination as an example of an »inappropriate water supply integration«, and »externalisation of environmental harm, in other words, devastation, in order to realise a private project in an extremely sensitive ecosystem«.
She added that golf courses were suitable for climates with adequate rainfall and humidity, i.e. areas which do not require significant additional energy and resources to maintain lawns.
»That is certainly not the case in our region, on karst and the islands where water is scarce. The golf course comes along with numerous buildings for tourism purposes, such as hotels, villas, roads, and a marina, all of which requires high volumes of water use«, she said.
She raised concerns about the calculation of the island’s carrying capacity, noting that the resources required for the project are either unavailable or unsustainable. She also found it interesting that the proponents of the 2019 Environmental Impact Study explicitly stated that »alternative solutions were not considered«.
In her opinion, it is unacceptable for the regulator, namely the Ministry, to defend its decision that the project is acceptable for the environment and the ecosystem, that alternative solutions are not feasible, instead of exploring options other than desalination to supply water for the golf course.
Enes Ćerimagić, a legal expert from the environmental group Green Action (Zelena akcija), which successfully opposed a high-profile golf project on island Srđ, explained that the business model for golf courses is often such that they are designed as exclusive, gated communities heavily reliant on public infrastructure – from the most basic municipal infrastructure and traffic infrastructure in general, to the exclusion of entire areas from public access.
»This is essentially an example of overdeveloped tourism, but in the case of golf resorts, it occurs suddenly and results in drastic changes and ‘overnight’ impact«, he told Oštro, adding that local resistance is often weakened by narratives emphasising the need for exclusive facilities for so-called high-spending guests, as well as for extending the tourist season.
Conflict of Interest
The objectivity and validity of the documentation on which plans and permit outcomes are based, such as Environmental Impact Studies, are often questioned because they are commissioned by the investors themselves, emphasised Ćerimagić who believes that such studies are undoubtedly necessary and are, in principle, a good instrument for environmental protection.
»However, their objectivity and quality have been justifiably criticized for years«, because the authors of the studies are selected and hired by the investors themselves, making them ‘employees’ of the investors who have considerable influence over them«.
This influence, Ćerimagić clarified, is reflected in lower labour costs which negatively impacts the quality of the research, and in the more than evident expectation of investors to get value for their money, meaning that the project is primarily declared acceptable for the environment.
»Overly critical study authors simply will not survive in the market,« Ćerimagić explained.
Study authors, who are primarily business entities, often »adjust« the conclusions of research conducted by experts, most frequently hired externally, who are often without influence and, as he said, in a dependent, precarious position in relation to the company preparing the study.
He recalls that there were proposals to transfer the process of selecting study authors to the competent ministry but they were rejected because public authorities would have to follow public procurement rules which would prolong the process. To apply the principle of »polluter pays«, where those causing environmental pressure must cover all costs to reduce, remove, or prevent it, the preparation of these documents is viewed as pre-compromised, discouraging citizens from participating.
»We have handed over an activity of general interest – environmental protection – to an exclusively market-regulated approach«, said Ćerimagić, concluding that the result is poor-quality studies, predictable research conclusions, and low trust in institutions.
Failed golf course plans
It was already in 1999 that the Croatian government introduced the Golf Development Program as a component of its tourism development policy. A decade later, the Law on Golf was enacted, only to be repealed by the Croatian Parliament in 2011 following a systematic campaign by various civil society organisations. The law was criticized for »failing to provide safeguards against misuse and for neglecting ecological considerations«. Nevertheless, lobbying for golf course construction didn’t stop.
The Tourism Development Strategy, adopted in 2013 for the period until 2020, acknowledged that Croatia does not appear on the global golf tourism map« due to its limited number of courses. Consequently, the strategy envisioned the construction of 30 new golf courses.
The 2017 Golf Development Action Plan, commissioned by the Ministry of Tourism, identified 98 potential locations for golf courses in spatial plans across Croatian counties, cities, and municipalities. Although the Matalda site was not included in this list at the time of publication, today it is closest to realisation, despite persistent criticism from experts.
Samo Demšar (Oštro, Slovenia) also participated in the investigation of this story.