Study details 'eco-necrotourism' and how public land managers can address psychological aspects of disappearing wonders

LAWRENCE — If you knew one of the great wonders of the world would disappear soon, you might be inclined to visit while you still can. That kind of “last chance tourism” is real, as people around the world rush to visit natural landmarks before such sites succumb to the effects of climate change. A new study from the University of Kansas documents “eco-necrotourism,” ecological grief and what public land managers can do in the face of people rushing to see Earth’s wonders before they disappear.

It's no secret people form deep emotional bonds to lands and places that are important to them and their loved ones. But little has been done to explore the psychological effects of people losing natural wonders. Robin Kundis Craig, Robert A. Schroeder Distinguished Professor of Law at KU, and Katrina Fischer Kuh of Pace University both specialize in environmental law and climate change’s effects on policy. During a conversation, they realized they have visited sites they wanted to see before they disappeared.

“This seems to be a real phenomenon. Visits are driven by tourists who want to see things before they are gone,” Craig said. “But no one was taking into account the psychological aspect of what is happening.”

The researchers have written a study examining literature from the tourism industry, psychology, public policy and law regarding visits driven by a desire to see natural wonders before they no longer exist. Their article, published in the Florida State University Law Review, coined the term “eco-necrotourism,” or tourism as a form of mourning.

Tourism literature has thoroughly documented last chance tourism. Real book titles such as “Last Chance Tourism,” “500 Places to See Before They Disappear” and “100 Places to Go Before They Disappear” all encourage travelers to catch fading natural wonders. And science has backed up that many natural wonders are indeed disappearing. Glacier National Park, for example, has documented the dwindling size of its namesake glaciers for decades, while Everglades National Park in Florida has documented how rising sea levels and agricultural practices have led to saltwater encroaching on the freshwater habitats of unique flora and fauna.

Craig and Kuh outline how visits in such sites have largely increased as people clamor to see them while they can. They also explore the ethics of last chance tourism, including questions of whether increased visitors exacerbate the dwindling of certain natural wonders and how some public land managers have responded to the phenomenon so far. They note that in some cases, such as Glacier National Park, increased visitors are not necessarily speeding the glaciers’ melting, but in places such as the Great Barrier Reef, inexperienced divers and other visitors can and have contributed to damaging the ecosystem.

Whether visitors are hastening a site’s decline, those motivated to see such disappearing wonders do in fact experience forms of grief. The authors cite examples such as people holding funerals for glaciers that have disappeared in locations such as Iceland just like they would for a deceased family member. They also cite psychological research documenting that people experience grief when they lose lands or natural features that are meaningful to them. Such ecological grief is only beginning to be acknowledged, but has and will continue to drive eco-necrotourism, the authors wrote, and as such dictates that public land managers would be well served to consider it in their management plans.

In the paper’s third section, the authors examine how public land managers can consider eco-necrotourism and ecological grief as part of their policy and management plans.

“How do we think governance of these places might have to change to accommodate visitors who are there for psychological reasons? That is a question we need to consider,” Craig said. “People do feel real grief when environments they are attached to start to see harm. This is a fairly new area of study, but there is a lot of evidence of it coming from many different places. Indigenous peoples have for decades, and wheat farmers in Australia, for example, have experienced grief over loss of beloved environments.”

The authors also document how residents and tourists alike have expressed grief over such ecological losses. With that grief and the resulting simultaneous increased visits and degradation in mind, the authors examine a typology of public land management. Fundamental questions of management in such settings should be addressed, including considering visitor psychology in adaptation planning and if that requires changes to how people are allowed to experience parks or whether visitor numbers need to be capped.

Some sites will eventually have a last visitor. Managers need to consider that possibility and ask who will be given precedence to be the last to see a natural wonder. Whether that priority is given to children, Indigenous populations, families, scientists, documentarians seeking to preserve memory for future generations or others is a question managers should contemplate. Finally, managers can also make equitable decisions about how disappearing sites are managed by giving Indigenous populations who have centuries of experience with the land a larger seat at the table to decide how the sites are managed.

“We’re not prescribing anything, because anything we did would be inappropriate for probably at least 70% of parks. Plus, there is the challenge of shifting memory. New generations are not going to view and remember the same things about sites as previous generations,” Craig said. “But, we need to start considering these questions and anticipating how visits are changing.”

As climate change’s effects continue to develop around the world, nature parks can provide valuable case studies on legal, governmental and policy responses to those changes, the authors wrote. Such parks have the advantage of generally being governed by central government organizations. By acknowledging psychological effects of environmental loss and ecological grief, they can provide examples of how to plan for and adapt to the psychological influence of climate degradation and peoples’ desires to experience natural wonders, while also mourning their changing nature.