Last autumn 50 international polar experts gathered in La Cristalera, a town in the outskirts of Madrid, Spain. Over the course of five days, their task was to draft a set of polar white papers.
These policy documents should highlight issues in both the Arctic and Antarctic that urgently needed to be addressed – and to which European polar research could make significant contributions. The workshop brought together natural scientists, social scientists, humanities researchers, representatives from indigenous peoples and the business domain. Jointly, they were to co-create white papers outlining polar issues crossing the many different disciplines and professions, worldviews, cultures and knowledge systems. And they did so successfully. At the end of the intensive workshop, the drafts of five white papers had emerged. Since then, the experts have continued their dedicated work and produced the final five documents, which we proudly present to you today:
White Paper 1: The coupled climate system
White Paper 2: Footprints on changing polar ecosystems
White Paper 3: Managing human impacts, resource use and conservation
White Paper 4: The road to desired states of socio-ecological systems in the Polar Regions
White Paper 5: Advancing operational informatics for Polar Regions
