Rural EuropeIn a simple way the Swedish archipelago can be divided into thre types of societies; the urbanised archipelago, rural archipelago and the isolated and sparcely populated rural islands. In our Leader area all three types exist. The aim of this area typical project is to analyse problems specific to the archipelago type and to try to solve and learn from them.
In the urbanised archipelago the inhabitants are totally dependant on being close to an urban centre for 
income, service etc. The problem in these areas is to protect and develop the conditions for the traditional commerce, mainly fishing. The traditional commerce is steadily diminishing due to financially strong interested parties, seldom local inhabitants, competing for land and housing. The project also wants to look at possibilies to diminish the need of commuting to work by trying to outlocate places of work.
In the rural archipelago the problem is to keep and expand the local commerce and service. Without these the archipelago depopulates or dies . In this project we want to see how two islands, who never before have coordinated their resources, may empower eachother to mutual satisfaction.
In the isolated and sparcely populated rural archipelago only few people inhabit each island. The problem here is to find ways to strengthen the links between the island and also the need of a point of support were service and schools are to be found. This archipelago has large housing problems, a declining fishing industry and a landscape soon becoming overgrown with bushes.
The Leader program contains two other main areas in which work is planned. Here we will try to give a short presentation on these main areas:
Strategic infrastructure | Thematic programs |
