A CLIMATE INITIATIVE
WITH EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC, AND DOCUMENTARY PURPOSES
Greenlandia is a French initiative designed to bring the voices and knowledge of a polar community in Greenland, at the forefront of climate change, to the heart of this issue.
Producing new scientific knowledge over a long period about the Arctic ecosystem where this community survives and understanding its evolution, raising public awareness with documents that record these changes, and finally, providing the youth with the keys to this situation through an educational program born from our Arctic expeditions over the past 10 years, are the mantras of Greenlandia.
Next expedition
Duration of the initiative
OUR VISION
In this context of a widespread climate crisis, we observe its consequences a little more each day. The Greenlandia team believes that we now have a duty to reflect on our relationship with the environment for the future.
With a growing global population that is increasingly urbanized and disconnected from nature, this complex but crucial question finds valuable sources of information and inspiration in the words and lifestyle of the Ittoqqortoormiit community (Greenland), which remains connected to nature for its survival.
A survival whose circumstances are now being reshuffled by our collective greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These emissions cause this polar region to warm four times faster than the rest of the world (source: IPCC).
OUR ACTIONS
To achieve our main objective, Greenlandia is built on three pillars of actions since its creation in January 2015. These three pillars, educational, scientific, and documentary, interact with each other.
PEDAGOGY: Inform, educate, and inspire high-quality action
In response to the legitimate concerns and questions of the younger generations about climate change, Greenlandia’s main objective is to first provide them with concrete and rigorous knowledge through an educational kit composed of various tools produced during all our expeditions in Greenland since 2015.
Part of these tools have been developed in accordance with current school curricula by teachers and specialists in environmental education and animation within our educational team.
The contacts established by Greenlandia with the school in the village of Ittoqqortoormiit (Greenland), together with researchers and key witnesses accompanying our initiative alongside our expedition team, allow for the concrete immersion of mainly French middle and high school classes in the theme of climate and its challenges.
Every year, numerous educational interactions take place in France, along with connections with Greenland, as part of our “ambassador class” offer, which connects two middle school classes from both countries for several years.
Many interventions also take place exclusively in France by our educational team. This is another offer: the “Greenlandia classes”.
(Documentation available upon request via the contact form).
SCIENCE: Producing new scientific knowledge about the Arctic ecosystem
From the initial reconnaissance missions on-site, the idea of the Greenlandia team was to approach research in this polar zone by replicating and adopting a long-term perspective to encompass the entire ecosystem, through a human-environment observatory approach.
This observatory, established by Greenlandia with its scientific partners in 2019, draws on the social sciences and humanities (SSH) and earth sciences. It allows for the examination of a range of impacts, causes, and consequences through the lens of climate change affecting this area: its fauna, flora, cryosphere, and human community.
In addition to elements indicated by meteorology, it is with the population that the first ongoing climate issues were identified, as early as 2015. These issues motivate the general axes explored by Greenlandia and its scientific partners until 2027 within the framework of this temporary observatory.
(Documentation available upon request via the contact form).
DOCUMENTARY: Keeping records and producing content on ongoing changes
Since 2015, the Greenlandia team has been building a collection of photographs and videos focused on climate change. Through the contacts developed over the years with the population, Greenlandia has already conducted several documentary missions with its own teams, journalists, filmmakers, and artists to create a unique documentary archive on land and at sea. This aims to concretely raise public awareness about the reality of ongoing changes.
(Documentation available upon request via the contact form).
OUR EXPEDITIONS
From August 2015 to September 2026, the teams of Greenlandia will take turns almost every year in France and Greenland to carry out educational, scientific, and documentary missions on land and sea as determined by our initiative.
By 2024, 10 expeditions will have been completed in 10 years since the beginning of our initiative. The annual scientific and documentary maritime expedition in Greenland, to achieve our scientific and documentary goals, can only take place in the summer in the Scoresby Fjord, after the sea ice breakup.
Participatory science missions involving local actors from the village have been successfully conducted since 2023, to complement the study of polar cod, among other initiatives.
Specific missions with educational, journalistic, or documentary purposes may also complement these annual actions, such as the school expedition involving French and Greenlandic ambassador classes, which takes place every 3 years.
Our philosophy, in line with the climate situation, is to minimize the use of transportation means for these missions to limit our carbon footprint as much as possible.
350 residents at 70° North
+3°C on average per year
Paris – Ittoqqortoormiit: 2,725 km
Following in the Footsteps of Commandant Charcot
Between 1925 and 1936, Jean-Baptiste Charcot led eight summer scientific missions in the Arctic, in the Scoresby Fjord (Greenland), aboard the Pourquoi-pas?
When Charcot was entrusted with organizing part of the International Polar Year in 1932-1933, he logically chose to carry out this mission in the Scoresby Fjord, using the small village of Ittoqqortoormiit, located at its mouth, as his base camp.
In 1936, the disappearance of Commander Charcot and his crew caused national mourning. A pioneer of French polar expeditions and climate change studies, the gentleman of the poles left behind an immense body of unfinished research.
Nearly a century later, the Greenlandia team aims to continue and complete Commander Charcot’s work by collecting new samples in Greenland to understand the evolution of climate change in the Scoresby Fjord. Since a series of interviews conducted with the local population starting in 2015, Greenlandia and its scientific partners have been able to determine relevant research directions around climate change affecting this fjord.
Starting in September 2020, these interviews continued with Semper Arctic and a team from this European research consortium focusing on the resilience of three Arctic populations, including that of Ittoqqortoormiit.
In the summer of 2022, Greenlandia organized its first scientific maritime expedition with Greenlandic and French researchers to study the impact of climate change through the polar cod, at the center of the fjord’s food chain. They also collected samples along the routes taken by Commander Charcot, in collaboration with the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris, to compare these new samples with those collected a century ago by Charcot and his team. These missions, which include new research avenues like red algae, will continue at least until September 2026.
Vincent Hilaire
Founder and Director of Greenlandia
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OUR PARTNERS
“Greenlandia is an important initiative because it is not only an expedition focused on scientific research but it is also an exchange of knowledge with the inhabitants of Ittoqqortoormiit.
This approach strengthens the resilience of local populations while preparing us collectively to face climate disasters that are already here everywhere else.
In addition to its scientific component, Greenlandia highlights the societal impacts behind the degradation of our ecosystems and raises the question, still insufficiently addressed, of adaptation.
It is also an educational project, which makes it even more important to me - my studies having been a decisive period in my awareness and my ecological commitment. »
"Going back to the observations made by Commander Charcot in this magnificent region of Scoresby Sund on the east coast of Greenland is an initiative of great interest.
How does this coast, which the “polar gentleman” mapped between 1925 and 1932, evolve under the onslaught of climate change? How the indigenous peoples, whom he knew and described so well, are adjusting to the geographic and economic transformations of these rapid changes.
Current questions about the future of mankind that concern us all. "
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SUPPORT US
Are you concerned about the ongoing climate crisis, the environment, and the communities affected by it?
Whether you’re an individual, a business leader, or a private patron, and you wish to get involved in supporting Greenlandia, there are several options available to you:
IF YOU’RE AN INDIVIDUAL
To support us, we’ve set up a Hello Asso account, which is extremely easy to use. Just click on the button below to make your donation and receive a tax receipt.
IF YOU ARE A PRIVATE PATRON OR ACTING THROUGH CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP
The association that has supported us since 2016, Innovations Bleues, is recognized as a public interest organization, allowing you to deduct your support from your income tax. For companies, this deduction is up to 60%, and for private patrons, it is up to 66%.
For private patrons, 75% of your donation amount can also be deducted from your IFI (Impôt sur la Fortune Immobilière), up to a limit of €50,000 per year.
For corporate sponsorship, this deductible donation cannot exceed 5% of your annual turnover. When you support us, your logo will be featured at least on our website, a post will celebrate your commitment on our social media, and you will subsequently receive our monthly newsletter.
After your donation is made, each company or patron receives a fiscal ruling issued by Innovations Bleues to declare the sum to the tax authorities. For corporate sponsorship, depending on the level of your support, you will automatically join one of these three Greenlandia Clubs:
- The Premier Partners Club (starting from €20,000), before tax deduction
- The Premium Partners Club (starting from €50,000), before tax deduction
- The Major Partners Club (starting from €100,000), before tax deduction
To ensure Greenlandia’s continued existence, we need you. Thank you!
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