Vital Arctic Graphics - People and global heritage on our last wild shores

The fate of the Arctic environment deserves global consideration. The Arctic is the world’s last continuous, undeveloped and unexploited coastal and marine region. It is an area highly unique in terms of its landscape, its peoples and ecosystems; as well as its vulnerability to climate change. The region is home to some 4 million people; roughly one-third of which are indigenous peoples whose traditional way of life depends directly on the health of the Arctic environment. Living as herders, hunters and gatherers, Arctic indigenous peoples have developed lifestyles that are inextricably linked to their surroundings. These peoples have lived sustainably in the Arctic for thousands of years, and are now faced with massive environmental change.

Vital Arctic Graphics is a compilation of illustrations and case studies intended to describe the Arctic, the livelihoods of Arctic indigenous peoples and the future well-being of this region. It summarizes some of the key threats to the future sustainability of the Arctic including the rapid pace of climate change, worrying levels of persistent organic and heavy metal pollutants, and increasing natural resource exploration. The coastal regions are particularly important to the peoples of the Arctic and their current protection status is therefore given particular focus.

This was originally prepared as a web-only publication in the spring of 2004, which has since been updated with this new web-site and report (launched February 2005). The old version is still accessible in the Vital Arctic Graphics archive.

Hard-copies of the report are available from EarthPrint - the environmental bookstore.

Entire report available as PDF: Vital Arctic Graphics (Size: 12MB)

A UNEP/GRID-Arendal publication