Coral Reef Collapse and Sense of Place in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Abstract

Natural places are critical to the psychological maintenance of contemporary society (Marshall et al., 2018). They are more than a simple background against which to carry out everyday lives. People become who they are because of the environment within which they live: they develop identities, pride, traditions, feelings of belonging, meanings of self and a sense of community; environments can shape aspirations, experiences, knowledge and understanding (Biedenweg et al., 2017; Masterson et al., 2017; De Miglio and Williams 2016; Devine-Wright, 2013). Natural places provide constantly evolving opportunities for spiritual and intellectual engagement, the development of special relationships, economic prosperity, day-to-day significance and well-being (Marshall et al., 2018; Gurney et al., 2017). Accordingly, while ecosystems contribute to making human life possible, they also contribute to making life worth living (Costanza et al., 1997). However, ecosystems are currently under unprecedented threat from a range of drivers, particularly climate change. While climate change is a global phenomenon, its physical impacts are experienced most acutely in the special places where people live and work and with which they associate significant meanings (Adger et al., 2013; Devine-Wright, 2013). What these changes mean for local people and their relationships with places is only just beginning to be examined (Adger et al., 2013, 2011). Understanding the influence of place change on people–place bonds is critical because of the role that these bonds play not only in people’s sense of well-being (Biedenweg et al., 2017; De Miglio and Williams, 2016) but also with respect to people’s attitudes, values and behaviours (Larson et al., 2013; Manzo and Perkins, 2006). Indeed, studies have demonstrated the link between people–place bonds and pro-environmental attitudes and behaviour (e.g. Goldberg et al., 2018; Stedman, 2002) and have suggested that shared bonds may play a key role in fostering collective action (Manzo and Perkins, 2006). The literature on sense of place provides a useful lens with which to examine how people–place relationships are affected by place change arising from key drivers such as climate change. Sense of place is an overarching construct comprising themeanings