PHorestAll

Context

The crises of ecological degradation and public health are strongly intertwined, as forests have a wide array of functions that are crucial to ecosystem health and to sustain biodiversity that can also strongly impact human health and well-being.

The degradation of forest ecosystems directly influences the diversity and balance of the soil microbiome (bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms), leading to the aggravation of the health and growth of the vegetation and of the above-ground biodiversity. Also, as it is claimed that biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) in the forest air are one of the main forest attributes contributing to human health improvement, there is a need to fully understand their role in forest ecosystems in order to develop better management practices and restoration strategies of these natural areas of utmost importance.

The hypothesis that time spent in nature has a positive impact on human health and wellbeing, means that an increase of nature-based activities can be a first step on societal change towards the concept of green prescription and alleviating pressure on public health services and budget.

Main objectives

The PHorestAll project aims to deepen the research on the profound relationship between forest health, biodiversity, and human well-being, positioning forests as essential NbS for addressing pressing global challenges. By studying diverse forest ecosystems across Europe and Asia (Portugal, Slovenia, Poland, Lithuania, and Taiwan), this project seeks to develop an innovative approach on the identification, assessment and valorisation of “Healing Forests” and its health-promoting effects.

Ultimately, PHorestAll aims for transformative research with the goal of developing standardized protocols to assess the health benefits of forest therapies and integrate the findings into public health policies.

Main activities

The scientific approach involves interdisciplinary research on forest microbiomes and BVOCs, examining their effects on human health through standardized protocols and field studies across diverse forest ecosystems. This will comprise the evaluation of existing standards, the sampling and analysis of the biologic indicators related with the soil microbiome composition and BVOCs, assessing the effect on human health and well-being.

PHorestAll pursues a pioneering approach that is supported upon the FTHub Method to standardize the Nature Connected Activities interventions over the different forest sites and resources to the JoinUs4Health platform that will lead and aggregate the work on the citizen science teams that will be involved in the research process. This direct involvement of different stakeholders aims to foster public awareness and understanding by creating accessible content to enable citizen science and facilitation of interactive dialogue between researchers and the community, pursuing an innovative, inclusive and participatory approach. The project addresses tailored workshops and information events aimed at policymakers, NGOs and local communities, ensuring that their insight integrates and contributes to the project’s outcomes.

Finally, the project ensures that its results and knowledge are effectively communicated to influence policies, engage communities and establish “Healing Forests” as a recognized NbS, that anticipates significant societal and policy impacts, derived from the expected influence of environmental exposure over physiological and psychological indicators, thus linking human and ecological complexity through an integrative perspective (covering social, financial and legal systems) that supports a fundamental balance between biodiversity conservation and public health.