(gentle music)
Downloaded from YTS.MX
(birds chirping)
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
- [Presenter] A new form of medicine is taking shape,
extracted from the hearts of our forests,
lakes, and mountains.
Many of our us instinctively know that taking a walk
in the woods, a stroll in the park,
or touching the soil improves our wellbeing,
stimulates our creativity, and favors a calm disposition.
But is it just an intuition?
Does nature have measurable effects on our bodies,
our emotions, or our brains?
Until recently, scientific proof to back up
this intuition had been lacking,
but over the last 20 years,
some of the world's most pioneering researchers
have made startling discoveries.
They are in the middle of proving how spending time
in nature, or even looking at it,
stimulates our natural immune system
and helps us battle stress, mental fatigue, depression,
and could even make us happier.
These major discoveries will revolutionize
the way we approach health, medicine,
and our relationship to the living world.
(uplifting music)
(wind swooshes)
(uplifting music)
As a kid, I used to spend hours in trees.
I'm lucky to have made that my job.
I'm a journalist who specializes in topics
involving nature and ecology.
10 years ago, I wrote a book
about my reconnection to nature.
(bells chime)
(lighthearted music)
(birds chirping)
In the scope of my research,
every person I met confirmed they felt better, more joyful,
more creative, and happier when in nature.
But when I asked them for tangible proof of these sensations
or intuitions, they simply didn't have any.
So I went searching for those who had studied the subject.
I wanted to go beyond the simple affirmation
that a walk in the forest is good for our health.
The discoveries I made extended far beyond
anything I could have ever imagined.
My study started with an important question.
Does time spent in nature have a scientifically
measurable effect on our bodies?
And if so, how does it affect our health?
It was all the way across the world
that I found the first elements of answer, in Japan.
(gentle music)
(birds chirping)
(gentle music)
Professor Lee is one of the first researchers
to have analyzed the tree's ability to impact
our immune system.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Interpreter] Shinrin-yoku Uses the power of the forest
in order to heal and prevent sickness.
(Qing speaking in foreign language)
We can absorb the benefits through all five of our senses.
(speaking in foreign language)
(calm melodic music)
- [Interpreter] By connecting with nature,
I'm hoping to reduce daily stress.
That's why I come to the forest.
- [Presenter] To encourage their people
to enjoy the benefits of the forest,
Japanese authorities have created
about 60 certified shirin-yoku sites,
complete with available guides.
(man speaking in foreign language)
- [Interpreter] If you touch a tree,
the tree will think it's being attacked.
It thinks it's an insect or a woodpecker,
so it reduces certain substances to protect itself.
But in essence, those substances are good for human beings.
That's why we touch or kiss the tree to stimulate it.
After doing that, if we sit nearby for a moment,
these therapeutic substances will be diffused by the tree.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Presenter] In 2006, Professor Lee was the first scientist
to prove that the aromatic substances produced by the trees
activate the cells that protect
our body's natural immune system.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Interpreter] The most important sense is smell,
which detects phytoncides.
Let me explain what a phytoncide is.
It's substance produced by the tree to protect itself
against insects or bacteria.
During my research,
we were able to prove that phytoncides
boost what we call natural killers,
and this was confirmed in the lab.
(Qing speaking in foreign language)
Natural killers are white cells,
immune system cells.
Natural killers are responsible for killing cancerous cells.
So when it comes to our health,
they're some of the most important cells.
(Qing speaking in foreign language)
- [Interpreter] If someone does three days and two nights
of shirin-yoku, the activity of the natural killers expands.
We've observed an increase in activity of 52%.
- [Presenter] And the effects are lasting.
Natural killer cells have been shown to be more active
up to 30 days, following a forest bath.
This can even be prolonged further.
(man speaking in foreign language)
- [Interpreter] Now, I want you to slowly reopen your eyes.
(Qing speaking in foreign language)
- [Interpreter] If every month we spend three days
and two nights in the forest,
we could maintain elevated levels of natural killers,
and that's the most powerful result
I have found in my research.
- [Presenter] Professor Lee wanted to learn
if the immune effects brought on by the forest
could be replicated in interior spaces.
To find out, he tested the most powerful essential oils
from trees known to impact our immunity.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Interpreter] This box contains essential oils.
This is hinoki essential oil,
very expensive and only found in Japan.
This is another variety of hinoki, this one from Zayu.
And we also have a vaporizer.
You can use this in different places.
For example, you could use it in a hotel or at home.
It gets vaporized little by little allowing you to practice
shirin-yoku in interior spaces.
But let's not forget that even though you do have
phytoncides in these essential oils,
the benefits of shirin-yoku are above all
tied to the interactions of our five senses with nature.
- [Presenter] The forest doesn't just affect
our natural immune system;
it also helps regulate our physiological parameters
pertaining to relaxation and calmness.
(calm music) (bird chirping)
Professor Yoshifumi Miyazaki,
a researcher at Chiba University in Tokyo,
has been studying forest bathing for 25 years.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Interpreter] When we are in the forest, we calm down.
We can see a reduction in cerebral activity as we predicted.
(speaking in foreign language)
The main idea behind shirin-yoku is that the human body
was made to live in nature.
(speaking in foreign language)
(calm music)
(bird squawking)
- [Presenter] The professor started his research
to confirm his own intuition as a scientist.
He developed brand new techniques that allowed him
to evaluate in the field and in real time
the effects of the forest on cerebral activity,
the nervous system, and stress hormones.
(calm music)
She is taking part in a study on the power of forest baths.
Underneath her hat, electrodes measure the activity
of a very specific part of her brain: the prefrontal cortex,
our brains learning and memorization center.
What the scientists found was illuminating.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Interpreter] According to our research,
cerebral activity is significantly reduced in the forest.
In contrast, big cities cause a significant
increase in brain activity.
- [Presenter] The professor then evaluated
the parasympathetic nervous system,
which regulates the body's calmness and rest.
(man speaking in foreign language)
- [Interpreter] Our work shows
that the parasympathetic activities
of the autonomous nervous system
increase by 50% compared to what happens in a city.
We can hence conclude that the body relaxes
when it's in the forest.
- [Presenter] Finally, a saliva sample was taken from Lin
to measure cortisol levels, a hormone released by stress.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Interpreter] In the forest, cortisol levels
are 12% lower than what we measured
when she was sitting in the city.
(speaking in foreign language)
(melodic music)
- [Presenter] Therefore, nature has a very real
and rapid impact on our nervous system
and our emotional state.
Saying it affects our health is not just a theory.
The results of Yoshifumi Miyazaki and his colleagues
have been validated in more than 60 forests
made up of hinoki cypress, Japanese pine, and cedar trees.
These forests are now certified Silvotherapy centers
and protected from any destruction.
(fast-paced orchestral music)
In just a few decades,
Japan has gone from a traditional
to an artificial way of life that puts immense pressure
on the Japanese people.
In Tokyo, Shibuya is the world's busiest hub.
(fast-paced orchestral music)
The professor resumes his experiment.
He's about to compare Lin's physiologic results
from the forest with the same set of data,
this time gathered in the city.
Lin may seem calm,
but inside everything has accelerated.
Her body's natural alarm system has been activated.
Her cortisol levels rise
and her heartbeat increases dramatically.
- [Interpreter] Human beings have existed
in natural environments for 7 million years.
Our DNA has adapted to live that way.
That's why man feels lost today.
Man cannot survive this artificial age.
- [Presenter] Professor Miyazaki believes
that the path to the forest is the best way
to prevent chronic illnesses
linked to the stresses of ultra fast urbanization.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Interpreter] I believe the most important benefits
of the forest are its medically preventive effect.
(speaking in foreign language)
(dramatic music)
- [Presenter] Lin's physiological data was then analyzed
at the Center for Environment, Health and Field Sciences,
at Chiba University in Tokyo.
The Japanese scientist has a lab equipped with unique
state-of-the-art technology capable
of measuring the therapeutic value of nature
for each of our five senses.
(calm music)
Finally, the professor also proved
that a view of trees compared to an urban view
rapidly reduces blood pressure.
(Yoshifumi speaking in foreign language)
- [Interpreter] We are more relaxed in the woods
because the forest and man synchronized one another,
our bodies are made to adapt to nature.
So the purpose of shirin-yoku
is not to lower our physiological constants,
but rather to get back to an equilibrium.
- [Presenter] I really liked the idea of nature readjusting
our stress-affected physiological settings
and bringing them back to balanced levels,
such as the adjustment that brings us the calmness
or vitality that are synonymous with wellbeing.
But does nature also have an effect on our spirit?
Does it regenerate us similar to the way sleep does?
And how does that affect our daily lives?
This time, my research led me to Northern Europe
and more precisely to Sweden.
(exciting music)
Terry Hartig is an environmental psychologist.
He was one of the first researchers to seriously study
the effects of nature on our cognitive functions.
He was going to help me understand how nature helps us
fight mental fatigue,
stimulates our learning capacities,
and renews our concentration levels.
- Here in the North, we want to look at the white space.
It's important for people to come out into the snow
and to appreciate what the,
the white landscape,
the winter landscape has to offer us.
This, in some ways, is a demanding place.
It's cold out.
You have to come prepared.
But still when you're prepared,
you come here and it serves restoration.
I can come here, I can feel calm.
I can clear my mind.
I can let my attention go to other things.
I can enjoy the beauty of the place.
I don't think so much about the day-to-day worries
of work and private life.
I can just appreciate this beautiful winter landscape.
(exciting music)
- [Presenter] Terry Hartig carries out his research
in the psychology department at the University of Uppsala,
Scandinavia's oldest university.
After years of work,
he has managed to develop a detailed scientific protocol
that simulates work environments in order to explore
how nature impacts our intellectual agility,
speed of execution, concentration, and memory.
(upbeat music)
(upbeat techno music)
The goal of these tests is to provoke intellectual fatigue
in the subject,
and then observe how the natural environment allows her
to restore her mental capacities.
(upbeat techno music)
Julia needs to follow directions
and ignore irrelevant information as fast as she can.
After 25 minutes of intense concentration,
Julia's vigilance starts to show signs of fatigue.
She's starting to make mistakes.
The young woman is then asked to walk for 30 minutes
in nature to relax her mind.
(calm music)
After her walk in the snow,
Julia takes a meditative walk in the greenhouse
next to the university.
The greenhouse gives students access
to a natural environment teeming with life,
a perk for anyone living in a country
where winter lasts almost half the year.
Julia resumes her tests.
Terry notes that she's making far few errors
than before the walk, even on the most difficult exercises.
He sees this as an important indicator
of nature's restorative powers.
- Now we see over many experiments
with different kinds of tests
that nature promotes more restoration.
People are regaining this ability to function effectively
in a cognitive sense.
Our thinking is that when people do have the ability
to go regularly to natural environments,
they can recover more quickly and completely
from their efforts to meet everyday demands.
And that this provides a buffer
against poor mental and physical health.
(curious music)
- [Presenter] I was starting to understand
the incredible potential these discoveries could have
on our daily lives,
but I still needed to understand
where this regenerative power was coming from.
Terry, who led one of the first major studies
on this very subject involving researchers from 20 countries
and thousands of trial subjects,
had some initial findings to share.
- Now the interest in nature and health,
of course, isn't new.
People have been interested in this topic
in a variety of ways.
What is different now is that we see people training
a wide variety of scientific methods
on questions about nature and health.
(wind howling)
There is one theory that people have been working with
for some decades now.
It's one of the earlier theories in the research area.
It's a theory of restorative environments.
This theory specifies that when people are out
in a natural environment,
they can rely on an effortless form of attention.
The authors of this theory,
Stephen and Rachel Kaplan,
refer to this effortless form of attention as fascination.
That is when people go out to a natural environment,
they can let their attention go to scenery,
features of the natural environment or to processes
like exploring that will engage attention
without a person having to make an effort.
- [Presenter] When we contemplate the beauty
of natural living environments,
our brain tunes to a certain wavelength
that is not like that of a sleeping state,
but more like an idle state,
which allows the brain to purge itself of mental fatigue.
- Today, we're concerned that too many people
are so disconnected from the natural environment
that they don't know what is being lost.
That is one of the things that motivates
the research on nature and health,
to try and help people appreciate the values
of these experiences with the natural environment,
these experiences of nature.
- [Presenter] Nature resets our brains.
Every one of us has the power to choose
our favorite restorative environment,
depending on which landscapes we prefer
or the natural environment that's closest
to where we live or work.
(tense music)
But how does the brain perceive nature
in comparison to the city?
And how do these neurological effects impact
the state of our mental health?
To answer these questions,
I went to Manheim to meet Professor Meyer-Lindenberg
- As neuroscientists,
we think it is intrinsically interesting to understand
the mechanism by which environmental exposure
and the context that we're talking about here
increases or decreases risk for mental health.
That's a basic science question
that only looking into the brain can answer.
(machine whirs)
- [Presenter] Neuroscientist Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg
is the first scientist in the world
to have identified the effects of nature
on neurological function.
In a study published in 2011 in the "Nature" journal,
the professor identified a region of the brain
that's only activated in situations of social stress
tied to urban life, the amygdala,
the brain section that detects fear.
- What you see lighting up here is the brain structure
that was related to living in a big city.
That's a brain structure called the amygdala.
And what we found is that the activation of amygdala
during social stress was dependent on the size of the city
in which people live.
And it's shown here, if you live in a rural area,
the amygdala really didn't activate at all.
If you were in a smaller city, a little bit;
and if you were in a big city, it activated a lot.
Hyperactive amygdala is we think the brain mechanism
that predisposes you to anxiety disorders
and also to depression.
And those are exactly the two groups of disorders
that you find are increased in people
who live in a big city,
they're increased around 40%, 30 to 40 to 50% worldwide.
- [Presenter] Faced with ultra fast rising rates
of neurological disorders
affecting anyone living in a big city,
the newest challenge for researchers is to evaluate
how the presence of urban nature
could preventatively help us stabilize
our moods and emotions.
Professor Lindenberg is making good strides.
He's carrying out a study that follows hundreds
of voluntary participants over the course of a year
using a mobile phone app and a emotion sensor.
Genia, a psychology student, takes part in this study
one week per year.
The goal is to correlate in real time
her state of mind with her outings in green spaces.
- See, a very strong relationship
between the amount of green space that you're expose to
and how good you feel and what that does to your brain.
The ambition is to do primary prevention.
We think that green space in cities is probably gonna be
an important component of making cities healthier,
because you can't deconstruct the city
and build it back up from the ground up,
but you can distribute green space more widely
and be sure that more people have access to it,
or if you are a city-dweller and you want to do something
about your mental health risk,
you can also seek out green space.
- [Presenter] Neuroscience offers precious new tools
to study the connection between nature and health.
I realize the importance of having
a multifaceted perspective that taps into various
scientific disciplines when considering public health.
(uplifting music)
(birds chirping)
The question of nature's role in our physical
and emotional balance is now being taken very seriously
at some of the world's most prestigious universities.
What was once considered only worthy of minor studies
is now growing exponentially.
In 1990, there were only two reference studies
on the connection between nature and health.
In 2015, there were 45;
and in 2018, more than 350 were published.
In 2015, a team from Stanford University was the first
to conclude that nature reduces mental rumination,
the root of depression.
- Stanford University has a lot of expertise.
Many different professors and students studying the benefits
of nature for a whole range of aspects of human wellbeing,
of jobs and livelihoods and economic security
through to health.
Disconnecting from nature has tremendous health risks.
Among them are the rising rates
of anxiety-related disorders,
depression-related disorders, poor attention,
sort of attention deficit hyperactivity related disorders,
and other things that we see plenty of evidence of
in schools and also in the workplace.
- [Presenter] Along with Gregory Bratman,
a specialist of environmental psychology,
Gretchen Daily led the study in which for the first time
nature emerged as an antidepressant.
- For our study,
we wanted to dig into one possible causal mechanism
about why it is nature experience
may or may not have affective or mood benefits.
- [Presenter] The two researchers divided the participants
in two groups.
One group went walking in the noisiest streets of Palo Alto
while the other group walked in the nature
surrounding the Stanford campus.
Upon their return,
the researchers compared their moods
and their brain activity using functional MRI.
The fact that the study combined neuroscience
with classic field techniques taken from social sciences
made it an international first of its kind.
- What we found was that rumination decreased
for the participants who were randomly assigned
to a nature experience versus an urban experience.
And what rumination means in psychology
is something very specific.
It's repetitive thought focused on negative aspects
of the self and it's associated
with increased negative mood,
and it can be a risk factor for the onset of depression
in some people.
- [Presenter] In a calming and welcoming, natural setting,
or when surrounded by living landscapes,
our mental and emotional suffering is muted.
That was a major discovery for the millions of people
in the world who suffer from anxiety or depression,
the illness of the century.
- If I come out into nature,
I may feel more connected to something bigger than myself.
It may be simply a switching away of focus on myself
that allows this rumination to decrease.
(gentle music) (birds chirping)
Nature's disappearing off the face of the earth.
We need to address the environmental justice aspect
of these questions and these issues
and make sure that there's equal access to these benefits.
- There's an urgency.
We're at a moment when the world is waking up
to the vital importance of nature,
seeing the tremendous loss of nature experience
among people living in cities,
and it's actually a tremendous moment when the science
is coming along, providing the evidence that decision makers
need for financial investments, meaningful action today,
right in this moment,
when urbanization is accelerating
beyond what anyone would imagine.
(melodic music)
- [Presenter] To sum up what I had learned,
walking in nature reduces stress,
reinforces our immunity,
helps us face everyday challenges, improves our mood,
and protects us against mental disorders and depression.
And it's all free.
It requires no medication and has no side effects,
but what if you can't physically go into nature?
If you have limited motion, are sick,
or weakened, for example?
Is it possible that the mere view of nature also affects us?
Roger Ulrich was the first to prove the positive impact
of nature on hospitalized individuals in his study
published in the prestigious "Science" journal in 1984.
- I wanted to see if exposure to nature
in contrast to exposure to built environments
that lack nature really had different effects
in terms of the ability to either block
or reduce recovery from stress
or promote recovery from stress.
- [Presenter] In his study,
Roger compared postoperative recovery
in two different patient groups
at a hospital in Pennsylvania.
One group had a window with a garden view
and the other group had a view of a plain brick wall.
- And sure enough, at the end of a week,
the health outcomes were different.
Those with the window view of nature
had better recovery outcomes.
They spent somewhat less time in the hospital, almost a day.
A big difference was that those who were exposed to nature
and had this emotionally pleasant, calming distraction
for hours each day experienced much less pain.
They didn't need potent narcotic injections.
They did take pain medication, but often it was weak pills,
but that was a big difference.
And many researchers, most of them from medicine,
have shown subsequently in many studies in recent years,
for that matter,
that distraction with nature for hospital patients
perceive pain levels and reduces intake of drugs.
There's a strong case to be made that if the patient
can go out or their stressed family can go out,
it's better to be in nature and be in a real garden.
This in turn means you have to rethink
the architecture of hospitals.
It seems to be a powerful, welcoming element.
You're not in this brutal institution of a hospital
or a clinic; it's a place that cares.
And the architecture is a lot softer.
- [Presenter] These studies contributed to the creation
of healing gardens in the United States, the UK, and Sweden.
Roger Ulrich started the conversation between architects,
landscapers, and healthcare professionals.
Thanks to him, green architecture is forging a new path
in big hospitals.
The idea is to create environments where natural elements
and gardens can become healthcare partners.
One of the first French experiments to examine
nature's therapeutic qualities took place
at Pitie-Salpetriere in Paris,
a 30-hectare teaching hospital that sees
some 20,000 people pass through every day.
She has been living her dream since 1997
when she became a nurse gardener,
helping children suffering from autism experience nature.
It's here in the small concrete backyard
of the pediatric ward that she created
her first healing garden.
- [Interpreter] Gardening heals in and of itself.
Meaning that little by little, whether children, elders,
or people with brain damage,
I bring them into the garden and I help them discover
the benefits of gardening,
and the effects that it has on them.
They start noticing that they feel better.
That's what the elite garden is;
it's a healing garden.
The caregiver receives care by caring for the garden.
Which boots do you want?
- I don't want to. - You don't want to?
We're going to water the plants with Ambra, come.
Here, I'll help.
The benefit of nature for those with autism
begins with simply getting them outside.
We find ourselves in a space that attracts them
and gets them outside of themselves.
The fact that there are familiar elements here, like water,
like dirt, things they already know,
that helps create a space that they basically understand.
Another thing they find appealing is that they always end up
finding something that surprises them.
It's all alive and always changing or growing,
so they understand that something's happening.
Wanna do it together?
Wait, together.
Every child is sensitive to an element,
whether that's water, earth, air, the sun or the wind,
put it all along here like we did before.
You can put more everywhere.
Like this.
To prolong that state of wonder
we have to create places like this one
where there's no fuss.
We're really one with the earth and the dirt.
It's very important for people with autism to be outside.
It's an amazing benefit.
Go on, hit it.
(calm music) (birds chirping)
Something happens in a garden.
Something that's hard to quantize on a report card
or an evaluation saying, were they this or that?
That's more difficult.
It's the little gestures that matter.
- [Presenter] Physical contact with the earth,
plants, or animals helps us gently get back in touch
with our sensory perception.
- [Interpreter] Children that struggle
to express themselves,
or that are trapped inside themselves,
completely change in the garden.
It brings out spontaneity,
kindness, or things of that nature.
If everyone did it,
I honestly believe we would all feel better.
- [Presenter] What Anne has brought to life
in her small corner of the hospital with little means,
but a lot of passion,
should be duplicated in other establishments.
Imagine if we had a network of green hospitals
with healing gardens that were accessible to the sick,
to their families, and their caregivers.
At this stage of my research,
I felt the need to take a step back
so that I could better understand the powerful,
physical, and emotional links that connect humanity
to the natural elements.
With a mix of fascination, fear, and attraction,
our ancestors learned to respect nature, to admire it,
to take refuge in it, and then to control it.
(delightful music) (birds chirping)
He has dedicated the majority of his work
to studying the relationship
between man and his environment.
He was going to explain the reasons why certain landscapes
make us much happier than others.
We met at his house in Louvain-la-Neuve.
- [Interpreter] There's a well known American scientist
named Edward Wilson.
He was a professor at Harvard University.
In the '80s, he had this idea he called
The Biophilia Hypothesis.
Basically, it states the man and woman
having innate affinity to the elements of nature.
He explained this emotional affinity,
this innate non-acquired attachment with nature
by the fact that there's a sort of co-evolution
between the culture of the hunter-gatherer
and the genetic evolution of the human species.
This is something that has been taking place
for 350,000 successive generations.
We're part of something much bigger than ourselves,
which has its own dynamics at its own seasonal rhythms.
We just contribute to it.
And that's what generates that feeling we get
when we feel like our life makes sense
that we're part of the flow.
What's remarkable about our contact with nature
is that it's extremely versatile.
To some people, the thing that typically allows them
to amplify their connection would be meditation
or something calming like slow walking, for example.
To others, it's exercise or adventure,
like going for a hike or a horseback ride in the forest.
Each of us has to find their unique preference
for how they like to interact with nature
in a way that is most suited to their way of life,
their preferences, their values,
and even how they structure their day-to-day living.
(birds chirping)
- [Presenter] He made me realize that nature
is not just essential to our health.
By getting closer to the thousands of other lives
it shelters, by reconnecting with the seasons
using a ritualized temporality,
maybe we can seize our chance to belong
to something bigger than ourselves again,
where words are no longer the main way we express meaning.
(uplifting music)
Everywhere in the world,
our deep-rooted connection with nature is being lost.
In barely one generation,
Canada went from a rural nation to an urban country,
where healthcare professionals are sounding the alarm
on rising obesity, hyperactivity,
and cardiovascular disease.
(bird tweets)
(horn honks)
But is there such a thing as an ideal distance from nature?
What are the criteria for nature to benefit our health
and how close can we really bring the forest to our cities?
(calm music)
He thinks the answer will come from the forests themselves.
Together with his students,
he's building the first evaluation chart
for the benefits of urban forests here in Stanley Park,
a 44-hectare green heart in the very center of Vancouver.
- So today we're actually out here to do what we call
an experience value mapping,
where we go into a forest and see what kind of experiences
does the forest or the park offer to us.
And it could really change from one part of the park
to another, where you feel you're moving
into a different room as it were.
So from maybe a very busy social area,
you move to an area where there's a lot of
reclusiveness almost and serenity
and where you really can feel
now I'm really restoring myself.
And we need both.
We need both the social and the more natural experience.
- [Presenter] Cecil Konijnendijk's work
is based on his understanding of holistic health.
In addition to physical and mental health,
he adds another key element: sociocultural relations.
His students are pulling data pertaining to noise level,
variety of tree species in the area,
but also playground availability for children,
and gathering areas designed for socializing
with friends or family.
- Yeah, it's almost like a savanna landscape, huh?
Which we know of course is very important for health,
people like savanna.
It's interesting that wherever you go in the world,
people have the same feeling with savanna.
So everybody likes savanna landscape.
That's why we have these parks that look like savannas,
'cause people are always so eager
to be in that kind of environment,
open space, and trees, and they can look
and they can see around.
Yeah, it's pretty important.
(birds chirping)
So the benefits of urban forests, of course, are many.
So we need different approaches,
different methods to really assess them.
Anything from the cooling effect and air pollution
reduction effect to more tricky things
like the psychological and social benefits of urban forests.
So we need a whole range of tools,
not only from forestry,
but from different fields to understand
the benefits of urban forests.
So I think this is all new stream of research.
How do we create better urban forest in a city
to actually provide benefits to our people?
- [Presenter] What Cecil said really touched me,
because he made me realize that although being in nature
reinforces our physical and mental health,
it also provides the perfect backdrop for fulfilling
our need to be with one another
and sharing moments of beauty.
- And luckily we see these days,
and that's really something new,
that the medical professionals are coming
into this field and actually start to understanding
the importance of nature on our health and wellbeing.
Because we need the medicine.
We need the medical professionals to really give us
the credibility and to give us the data
for showing these benefits.
- [Presenter] Matilda Van Den Bosh is a doctor
and a professor at the school of population
and public health at the University of British Columbia.
Using very precise geospatial data,
Matilda and her students can identify
the biodiversity of cities like Vancouver
down to knowing exactly which varieties of tree
or bush species are present in each neighborhood
and then cross reference that information
with data available about public health.
- We have data for Vancouver and now other cities
in Canada as well that provides sort of 360 degree views
of greenness as we would see it from the street.
And we can overlay this on maps of Vancouver
and we have sort of a measure of how people
would experience greenness from the street,
all along the neighborhoods of the city.
So then we can link this with data on health
in early childhood, as well as later in life.
- That is fantastic.
The kind of satellite data we are working with as well now
where we can actually go down and look at single trees
and specify particularly,
because that is also what has been lacking,
I think, quite a lot in the research before that we,
it has not been really specific enough.
What has usually been done in this kind of research is that
you look at satellite images and then you get
the kind of overall view of the greenness
in a city, for example.
And then you can basically tell whether it's green
or it's not green.
However, in this map,
what is interesting here is that it has been
through different techniques, been classified.
So we can look at the different species
like the cedrus trees, coniferous trees,
different type of grass and shrubs,
and then also the impervious and built areas, surfaces.
On this project, we are specifying what type of green space,
what type of vegetation would actually
have a specific impact on the health outcome.
I think the most important there is actually
the collaboration between environmental scientists,
between urban planners, and from my perspective,
the public health workers and agencies,
the collaboration there and to increase the awareness
of the the knowledge across the sectors is very important.
- [Presenter] Taking biodiversity into account
in our research on nature and health is something recent,
but in the short term,
it should provide precious clues to urban planners
who may begin choosing tree species
based on their specific therapeutic benefits.
(uplifting music) (birds chirping)
(bells chime)
When I met up with my fellow tree-bathing companions,
I finally understood what they meant
by receiving tree energy.
Tree energy comes in the form of phytoncides,
which have a positive effect on our immune system.
The energy from trees has antidepressant
and anti-stress qualities.
Nature isn't just good for us; it's vital.
- It is interesting how science has validated
what the indigenous peoples always knew.
Every plant here has something beneficial to offer.
- There's no language, it's all about feeling,
but sometimes, sometimes there's a lot of love as well
from the trees.
And there's a lot of joy as well.
I experience those things.
(birds chirping)
- Coming into this forest,
with that opening up all the senses,
it was an overwhelming experience.
It was just very, very overwhelming.
And it was just something
that I really enjoyed experiencing.
- [Presenter] As I reached the end of my research,
I realized that children are particularly at risk
for our growing disconnect with nature,
renewing the ties between children and the natural world
as early as possible must be a priority,
but what's the best way to tackle this problem?
I then discovered forest schools.
Their main goal is to encourage children
to explore their environment and offer education
while they're fully immersed in the forest.
- Forest school is a play-based learning philosophy
that takes children outdoors
to play freely and to feel in their hearts
that they have a place that they could go back to
as they get older.
If you have the time in the forest and you are allowed
to explore, you're allowed to be curious,
you're allowed to follow what inspires you,
then I think that's how you and the forest work together.
And something that I think many adults have forgotten
how to do is learning how to get deep into play.
And at forest school,
we give children the time and the space
to do what they would like to do
and to get into what we would call flow.
And flow is that feeling of you are so immersed
in the moment that you forget about everything around you
and you just do what you love to do.
It's a very, very calming thing.
So if we can teach ourselves how to do that as children
and we can teach our children how to do that,
then I think that's a huge gift.
I think that the future of forest school is really to become
a force behind bringing nature into the city,
because children need to be able to go in nature every day,
not just once a year, not just on a school field trip.
- [Presenter] For the past 25 years,
more and more studies have been providing irrefutable proof
of nature's incredible power to heal.
Now researchers will need to better understand
how nature affects each of us,
depending on our individual health,
our senses and our personalities.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Interpreter] I'm convinced that in the future,
doctors will start prescribing time in the forest
over pharmaceutical drugs.
- Research will have very much to do in the coming years,
trying to understand how the relationship
between nature and health can develop
and how that relationship can look differently
for different people in different contexts.
- [Interpreter] It's interesting to see the extent
to which today's public health policies
promote healthy eating habits,
how they fight against excessive consumption
of alcohol or tobacco,
yet they're totally lackadaisical when it comes
to contact with nature.
I think there's an extremely promising field of work here
in terms of public health policies.
Because at the end of the day,
it will contribute to diminishing the costs of healthcare.
- Green should be part of the solution,
not something that comes extra at the end
when everything else is being sorted
and then we get maybe half a percent or 1%
of the city budget.
And I think this whole health debate is really helping us
to make across that point to make sure we get green spaces
integrated into these major agendas and policies.
- [Presenter] These new scientific discoveries
support what native populations have known for centuries.
We are interconnected with the living world
down to the deepest part of our bodies and souls.
- Where I think we need to listen very much more
to the knowledge which is stemming from millennia
and where this knowledge is actually existing today
in the indigenous communities.
And if we could collaborate more,
we could reach a bigger and deeper understanding
of the interconnections between
the house of the environment and the house of the people.
- This effect of nature experience should be brought
to all people and should benefit humanity.
It's only now that we're being deprived of it
as we move to cities
and have the decreased rates of nature exposure.
We need to figure out ways to bring that back
into people's lives.
- [Presenter] Mankind has created immemorial ties
with mother nature.
We need her as much as she needs us
to take better care of her and respect her.
We are nature.
If we destroy it, we destroy ourselves.
The time has come for us to make a new pact
with our living world.
(enchanting music)
(birds chirping)