Mandated under the Arctic Council’s 2002 Ministerial Declaration as a “priority project” designed to provide a “comprehensive knowledge base” for the work of the Council’s Sustainable Development Programme, the AHDR was a centerpiece of the Icelandic Chairmanship of the Arctic Council during 2002-2004.

The report contains 11 substantive chapters, an introduction, a conclusion and a Summary of Major Findings. Based on contributions from some 90 scientists located in all the members of the Arctic Council and coordinated by a secretariat based at the Stefansson Arctic Institute in Akureyri, Iceland, the report offers a wide-ranging scientific assessment of achievements and challenges relating to human development in the Arctic.   

According to the AHDR,  “Arctic societies have a well-deserved reputation for resilience in the face of change. But today they are facing an unprecedented combination of rapid and stressful changes” involving both environmental forces like climate change and socioeconomic pressures associated with globalization

Under the circumstances, it is particularly noteworthy that the “… Arctic has become a leader in the development of innovative political and legal arrangements,” including co-management regimes governing the use of natural resources, collaborative arrangements designed to facilitate cooperation between public governments and indigenous peoples organizations, and transnational arrangements like the Northern Forum and the Arctic Council itself.