6.06.00 - Forest, trees and human health and wellbeing

UNIT NOTICEBOARD

2020-06-22

Hot off the Press: Forests for Public Health

Editor(s): Christos Gallis, Won Sop Shin. 2020. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN-13: 978-1-5275-5029-2. ISBN-10: 1-5275-5029-X

Forests have diverse values and functions that produce not only material products, but also non-material services. The health functions provided by forests have been used for a very long time, but they have only been emphasized in many fields of society in recent years. The rapid increase in urbanization and the problems of stress, sedentary occupations, and hazardous urban environmental conditions due to modern life may be factors that place great demand on forests’ health functions. Scientific research has shown that there are various psychological and physiological human health benefits of exposure to forests, parks, and green spaces. This collection of papers highlights up-to-date findings and evidence to reveal the beneficial effects of forests on human and public health. The findings provided here can be implemented in practice and policy using forests and nature for human and public health.

Available fromhttps://www.cambridgescholars.com/forests-for-public-health

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Coordinator:

Christos Gallis, Greece

Deputies:

Kathryn Bowen, Australia

Ahmad Azaruddin Mohd Noor, Malaysia

About Unit

The main objective of the Research Group is to increase the knowledge about the contribution that forests, trees and natural places make, and might make, to the health and well-being. The benefit will be a better understanding and improved description and evaluation of processes and pathways linking forests to human health and well-being.

Secondary objectives are:

  1. To identify and record key lessons from national research and initiatives to promote forests and health,
  2. To set out the key health priorities identified within the different countries and the possibility for forestry to contribute to meeting them,
  3. To prepare a state-of-the art report
  4. To join efforts to set up innovative, international research and development projects within this field,
  5. To engage health policy interests in the identification of information gaps in this field,
  6. To develop a network of researchers and research institutions in forestry, health, environment and the social sciences.