The Yukon represents a key case because permafrost degradation is particularly active here—and it’s also a popular destination for nature-based tourism. In order to build resilient societies and in light of climate change impacts on permafrost, it is critical to include everyone, local communities and tourists alike, in adaptation strategies and decision-making processes.
The challenge? Permafrost degradation is still not widely perceived as an urgent concern by tourism actors. So far, effects of permafrost thaw are mostly visible through impacts on infrastructure (roads, in particular) that help move visitors between sites. For now, that hasn’t significantly disrupted tourism operations or economies. Nevertheless, projections show both accelerated permafrost thaw under climate change and continued tourism growth across the Arctic.
Therefore, we as geographers claim that if permafrost remains an afterthought in management plans, the combination could increase pressure on local emergency services, search and rescue teams, and communities. As such, it becomes imperative to develop anticipatory and proactive soft adaptation strategies as opposed to the rather limited reactive strategies that are commonly developed in the tourism industry.
During almost three weeks, we drove across the Yukon, stopping in the communities of Whitehorse, Haines Junction, Dawson City, Mayo, and Carmacks. Eirini focused on surveying retrogressive thaw slumps (RTSs) and active layer detachment slides (ALDs) (two types of landslides caused by permafrost degradation) collecting data such as ground temperatures. In parallel, Alix conducted semi-structured interviews with tourism operators to better understand how (or whether) they see permafrost as part of their future planning and management.
This interdisciplinary initiative emerged from our co-authored recent publication in Climatic Change “Permafrost degradation-induced risks for nature-based tourism in the Arctic – case from the Yukon”, where we brought together periglacial geomorphology with tourism geography. While in the field, we often crossed roles – Eirini joining interviews and Alix helping survey landslides – because understanding these changes requires both physical and human perspectives.
On our second day in Whitehorse, we headed into the field to find a specific RTS along the Takhini River. The slumped soil had carved a deep depression, about 15 meters deep and nearly 200 meters long. The scene felt surreal, roots lifting, trees toppled across the slump floor and small pockets of water pooling in the loosened ground. It’s one thing to read about permafrost hazards but it’s another to see the land literally shift beneath you. These aren’t static geological features, they can turn a safe trail into a risk zone overnight.
Protecting the Arctic for tourism isn’t just about preserving postcard views; it’s about better understanding the ground beneath our boots. The RTSs and ALDs we saw in June are nature’s way of telling us stability is temporary. If nature-based tourism in the Arctic is to grow, we need strategies built on both measurement and humility, because in the Yukon, the earth itself is on the move.
Writers of this blog post are Doctoral Researcher Eirini Makopoulou and Postdoctoral Researcher Alix Varnajot, from the Geography Research Unit, University of Oulu. Varnajot received Resilience Oulu Academy Mobility (ROAM) visiting programme grant for his research.
The Exploring resilience blog discusses the current themes of research, teaching and development of resilience, i.e., crisis resistance and deepens knowledge about the management of global change, and possible solutions to the wicked problems of sustainability. The authors are researchers and experts in the field, and members of the cooperation networks of the University of Oulu’s FRONT PROFI7 research programme.