Workshop Koster Islands

• - "It's not just about what needs to be done to strengthen the Koster Islands, it's just as important how we do it," says Matthes Sierk, Koster resident and project coordinator. Attracting young people to live on Koster and other smaller island communities is one of the major challenges discussed during the project's workshops at the end of April. For Matthes Sierk, it is important that young islanders have the opportunity to influence the future of the islands.
• - Of the more than 300 people who live year-round on the Koster Islands today, the majority are over 40 years old. "But this is a fantastic place with great potential to become an attractive living environment for more young families," says Matthes Sierk, who moved to the Koster Islands a year ago.
• - Two major challenges for the Koster Islands are the availability of housing and primary schools on the island. "To find sustainable and long-term solutions, we need to look at how the people of Koster and the municipality of Strömstad can co-operate in new ways. And for the young islanders to get involved in the development work, we need to find out how they view collaboration," says Matthes.
• The development work is part of the Interreg project FREIIA, which also involves universities and island communities in the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark and France. The Swedish project work is led by University West and is carried out together with AB Kosters Framtid and the Kosterhavet National Park.
• - "Today, the people of Koster and the municipality of Strömstad cooperate in several different forums," explains Lisa Bomble, project manager for FREIIA and researcher at University West.
• - "Our task in the project is, among other things, to investigate how the structure of this collaboration can be developed so that it works better and leads to more concrete results. In this work, Kommunakademin Väst plays an important role as a link between the project and Strömstad municipality," says Lisa.

Valuable lessons for more municipalities

• "The lessons learnt from the project and the exchange of experience with other countries are not only valuable for the Koster Islands and Strömstad Municipality, but also for other municipalities in the region," comments Johanna Eliasson, Director of Kommunakademin Väst.
• "Some of the challenges of the island communities are similar to those faced by the municipalities in Dalsland and other parts of Bohuslän. My hope is that through collaboration in Kommunakademin Väst we can spread experiences and methods both during the project and afterwards, says Johanna.
• In addition to research efforts, University West will also involve students in the development of the Koster Islands in various ways.
• "Here, students from different programmes can contribute with different types of efforts. For example, they can create tools that visualise collaboration and relationships. We can also use the Koster Islands as a case in various courses and degree projects," says Lisa Bomble.
• "The university's goal is to build a long-term collaboration with the Koster Islands' partners where we can mutually benefit from each other," says Lisa.

Learning from each other

During the project meeting in Strömstad, it became clear that the island communities included in the FREIIA project have several common challenges and can learn from each other's experiences. At the same time, differences were identified in how municipalities and corresponding organisations are structured in the different countries.

- "Cooperation is of course affected by the size of a municipality or region, how close you are to your politicians and the decisions that affect you. Here we can learn from each other's similarities and differences," says Lisa.

Read more about the project (article published 25/4 2023):

Contact: 

• Lisa Bomble, Project Manager, University West
• Johanna Eliasson, Director of Operations, Kommunakademin Väst.
• Matthes Sierk, Project Coordinator, University West