Eco-war tourism: Affective geographies, colonial durabilities and the militarization of conservation

Eco-war tourism, a growing niche where tourists seek adventure and conservation in conflict zones, intensifies green militarization and reshapes space into 'safe' and 'dangerous' areas. In Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo, this phenomenon commodifies both war and gorillas, contributing to the bunkerization of tourism and the militarization of conservation efforts. The study links critical security studies and political ecology to demonstrate how eco-war tourism, rooted in colonial durabilities, produces Eurocentric ideas about nature protection while entangling diverse security interventions—military, tourism, humanitarianism, and conservation—in inherently political nature-society relations. It underscores the futility of treating 'society' and 'the environment' as separate fields of security.

Marijnen, E. (2022). Eco-war tourism: Affective geographies, colonial durabilities and the militarization of conservation. Security Dialogue, 53(6), 550–566. https://doi.org/10.1177/09670106221112215