As of winter 2019, the island of Vlieland (Fryslan, The Netherlands) will have its own brewery. Only local ingredients such as oyster filet, seaweed, dune herbs and Vlieland’s own high-quality natural dune water will be used. The location, annex to a special protected nature area, has been granted by the local nature governance organization, “Staatsbosbeheer”. Small theatre and film productions and performances will be integrated into the activities of the brewery. Due to a substantial regional grant from the “Waddenfonds”, and support from many local organizations, the island-based entrepreneur Bojan Bajic, with support from colleagues from the Frisian mainland, has been able to develop this unique local produce annex local nature and culture experience.
Example of strategy 1B:
Stimulate the Development of Creatives’ New Products and Ventures
Directly or indirectly, island governments can stimulate their creative industries (arts and crafts, product designers, architects, communication and media designers, service and app developers, etc.) to develop new, sustainable concepts based upon local conditions and strengths. With an emerging tourism market on many islands, new products based on local -not yet fully explored- materials for instance, can create interesting new product-market combinations, that tourists love to buy. Such local materials could be produced through new applications of known natural resources, like cork (isolation), shells (building material), wool (isolation) and grain (local food, local beer).
They are also valuable for completely new products and ventures with new sources of inspiration, like the use of seaweed for food and cosmetics or the use of salty water areas for the growth of high-quality salty food plants. Likewise, algae from the sea are now used as building blocks for the small-scale production of bio-based materials, applied in furniture, house building, etc. (Source: Studio Veenhoven, 2017. Amaral, 2019). The local government can support the on- island creative community in their discovery of such new options. Not only with the establishment of new creative businesses and alliances on the island but also by actively mobilizing their policy network on the mainland and EU-wide.
