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RELEASE 27 JUNE 2009
Newsletter 3/2009FÖSS continues to invest in the younger generationFÖSS has receiver the good news that the Regional Administrative Board of Western Finland continues to provide us with moneys for work with juveniles living on islands The association was granted 23 000 euro for continuation of the digital video courses, and for setting up networks and an Internet forum intended for young people It is already now possible to study these efforts at our web site, and the digital forum will be realised in September 2009 at the latest. It will provide juveniles living on islands with an opportunity to get in touch with each other. The forum will also make it possible for the Youth Section of FÖSS to learn what kind of activities and projects the young people of the islands are interested in, as well as to provide us with a medium through which we will be capable to tell of coming projects and of the realisation of planned activities. Another issue to be realised by the Youth Section in the near future is to make itself visible on islands where the juveniles have shown interest but which are somewhat peripherically located - one of these islands being Bergö which sorts under the Regional Administrative Board of Western Finland but is located far from Turku, the administrative center. An investment in this respect will be made during the autumn of 2009 when we will go on with our digital video project by organising a course on Bergö. There exist plans to set up also other digital video courses elsewhere on the islands. As a follow-up of the project "Verkko - Nätet" ("the Net"), 1 June to 30 August 2009, it is planned to make it possible for a few juveniles, living in the project area, to attend the annual general meeting of ESIN, the European Small Islands Network, on the island of Elba, in Italy. This visit might be able to show the strengths a Finnish island network is apt to provide in order to make an impact and in order to also set up networks aiming at island cooperation with other European countries. Project "Green Islands"FÖSS decided in autumn 2008 to initiate an INTERREG project taking up an environmental theme, together with Estonian, Åland and Swedish islands. The title of the project is "Green Islands". In October 2009 we will jointly apply for funding for the project from the European Union Central Baltic Interreg Programme for the years 2007 - 2013. Mr. Lennart Andersson of the Swedish Skärgårdarnas Riksförbund (SRF) has been engaged with the application and with a pilot study. We hope that we will be able to set up the project in 2010 The goals of it are to develop environmental ways of thinking, and to make an effort for a cleaner Baltic Sea. The participating islands must posses round-the-year inhabitants, while lacking a permanent road connection with the mainland. At the end of May 2009 FÖSS met with representatives of islands and island municipalities from Finland, Sweden, Estonia and Åland Islands in order to discuss the project, planned to last for three years. The meeting was held in Turku, with FÖSS acting as the host. We are going to select a few islands in each participating country to be developed into so called "green islands". At the maximum, three or four islands from each participating region will be selected. A final decision concerning the islands that will participate in the project will be taken in the beginning of 2010, but it is naturally quite obvious that the selected islands themselves must be interested in the project. It is still possible for an island to announce its interest to FÖSS (). The "green islands" will strive for becoming independent as regards energy management, sewerage and refuse disposal. The islands are supposed to reduce exhausts, to compost and to recycle as much as possible. It will also be possible for the islands to invest in energy from solar panes or from bio gas. But the actual form of how the islands will develop the various sectors of the project will depend on the circumstances on each island, and, in particular, on which issue the inhabitants of each island will invest in. It is important that those living on an island, both round-the-year inhabitants and leisure time inhabitants, should actively participate in the project. With respect to water supply and sewerage issues the municipalities must be given a considerable responsibility, and, accordingly, they have to be partners of the process. The project will be initiated by an inventory of environmental issues on the island, including a study covering the use of energy in real properties, by enterprises and on farms, by cars, tractors, mopeds and boats, exhausts from the sewerage system and refuse disposal. After this stage an environmental plan is drawn up. The measures will be launched in 2012, this depending on the economic conditions prevailing at that time. The final phase will be the certification of the island as a "Green Island" which then can be utilised as a model for other islands. One of the stages of the project is to line out criteria concerning the definition of a "Green Island", and to develop methods to appraise this. These methods will, hopefully, assist and inspire other islands. The islands that will achieve the status of a "Green Island" can thus serve as examples for other islands that in the future will invest in the environment. Celebrating the gone sixty years of island policy workThe governmental Island Committee celebrated the gone sixty years of island policy work with a seminarium in Taipalsaari, 1 - 2 June 2009. At the seminarium a work of history depicting the Finnish activities concerning island development and the Finnish island policy work was published. At the same time 40 merited policymakers active with in the realm of island policy work, as well as friends of the island sphere were rewarded The work of history and a brochure informing about island issues are available at www.tem.fi/saaristo in Finnish and at www.tem.fi/skargard in Swedish. Additional informationFÖSS, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FINNISH ISLANDS Executive manager |
