Forest Scientists, Colleagues,

Urbanization and modern lifestyle changes have diminished possibilities for human contact with nature in many societies. At the same time, many societies today face increasing incidence of poor physical and mental health associated with chronic stress, insufficient physical activity and exposure to anthropogenic environmental hazards that cannot be addressed by medicine and technology alone.

Contributing factors include increasingly sedentary occupations and lifestyles, increasing levels of mental stress related to urban living and contemporary work practices, and hazardous urban environmental conditions such as noise, heat stress, and air-pollution. They contribute not only to public health problems and increased expenditures for health care systems, but also lower productivity at work, increased work absenteeism, and other costly outcomes.

Natural elements and spaces such as trees, forests, urban and peri-urban forests, urban parks, gardens and green spaces have been seen as providing opportunities to ameliorate such trends. There is a growing body of evidence on positive relations between exposure to such natural environments and diverse human health indicators.  One key message emerging is that contact with nature improves psychological health by reducing pre-existing stress levels, enhancing mood, enabling the recovery of cognitive abilities like directed attention, and in other ways supporting restorative processes and protecting them from the effects of future stressors.

All this will be discussed at the World Conference on “Forests for Public Health”, Athens, Greece, 8-11 May 2019, https://fph2019.org/!

Don't miss the early-bird registration, https://fph2019.org/registration/,  which is open until 30 October!

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posted by Brigitte Burger, IUFRO Headquarters, on behalf of:

Dr. Christos Gallis,
President of the Organizing and Scientific Committee, and

Deputy Coordinator of IUFRO 6.00.00 - Forest, trees and human health and wellbeing, https://www.iufro.org/science/divisions/division-6/60000/60600/