We wish to involve Koster visitors in the long-term sustainably development of the islands!
Welcome to the Koster Islands webpage of Greenmapper Friends, a co-experiment by Kosternämnden, The Koster Islands school, Kosterhavets National Park, University West Sweden and the University of Groningen. This project is part of an EU-cofunded project FREIIA, aiming to foster responsible tourism by crowdsourced opinion analysis and a virtual pledge experiment.
The Koster Islands is part of the Kosterhavet National Park (established in 2009). Around 300 people live year-round on the two main islands, while tens of thousands of visitors throughout most of the year. Like many rural areas, with an ageing population, maintaining a vibrant year-round community is increasingly difficult due to limited availability of services such as primary education, affordable housing, and healthcare.
To ensure the long-term availability of these services, we invite tourists (like you) to submit and vote on opinions about feasible measures and indicate whether and how much you would like to donate.
- The opinions and votes will be used to analyse consensus, divergence, and identify key measures for long-term sustainable living on island.
- The donation is to estimate how much support people are willing to give to the (re-)open of Koster Island school, one of the essential services for the next generation on island.
Afterwards, we organise a voluntary online meeting where ‘citizen scientists’ (participants like you), Koster partner organisations, and experts to reflect on the results.
PARTICIPATE AND WIN AN OVERNIGHT STAY FOR TWO!
Please fill out the survey and pledge a donation latest September 30th 2025, to have a chance to win a “Kläpphagen package”: dinner, one night stay and breakfast for two.
What is Koster-Greenmapper Project?
The Koster-GreenMapper Project is based on an online scientific research web-platform called Greenmapper. Greenmapper explores new ways of connecting people to the nature-related places and landscapes that they love, through a new way of systematic data gathering. The collected data serves to support better nature and tourism policy and management, but also how tourists actively can help to ensure that their favourite places of natural beauty can survive as year-round communities.
How can I participate in the project?
Step 1: Create an account
Press the button below this page. Register and participate in the project with a GreenMapper “friend/fan” account!
To start participating, you first mark on a map where you live. For privacy, you don’t mark your exact address, but approximately where you live. You can watch the short animation video to explain how this works.
>> Click and see how to place a home marker <<
Step 2: Participate in the survey of more year-round visitors on Koster
After registering, you will be redirected to a voting page. The topic is how to actively support the school. You can vote “Agree,” “Disagree,” and “Unsure/Pass” on various statements. Perhaps you have a completely different opinion. Give your opinion and submit it so that others can vote on your idea.
You will remain anonymous and will see a visualization of opinion groups. The votes will be used to analyze consensus and differences of opinion. The topics and measures that receive the most votes will be analysed and discussed during the later meeting with local authorities.
>> A preview of statements you can vote upon <<
Step 3: Participate in the virtual pledge funding
After few minutes on the voting page, you will be asked whether to participated in a virtual pledge funding. As a participant, please let us know if and how much you want to donate, also the reasons or expectations.
The funding will only be used to secure the continued operation of Kosteröarnas Skola, support staffing and infrastructure needs, and integrate the school’s role in sustainable community development and responsible tourism. Once launched, annual financial and social impact reports will be published transparently via the school’s website.
Step 4: Become a ‘citizen scientist’ and participate in an online roundtable meeting
Once our community reaches enough friends, we will randomly select 10-20 participants for an online roundtable meeting, where fans, Koster partner organisations, and experts will discuss in depth the options for future action.
Disclaimer!
We feel we should give a warning! Yes, Greenmapper is a user-friendly web app designed for the public. Still, it remains scientific software, with very limited funding and a very small technical support team. When compared to a simple written survey, Greenmapper stands out as a visually appealing and interactive tool. When compared to big tech applications, you may still find it far less fluent and user-friendly. Bear with us and our small team. Our means are limited, but our efforts, and yours (!), are noble.