Across the last three decades, international research has demonstrated and validated the many health benefits Forest Therapy and Shinrin-yoku bring about. These benefits can be classified into two groups: direct and indirect effects.
The main physiological and mental health benefits immediately measurable after a guided Forest Therapy walks are:
Regular guided Forest Therapy walks bring about the following indirect or long-term health effects:
The degree of measured health benefits varies from person to person due to a number of factors coming into play (for example, overall constitution and health, age, gender, hormonal and genetic dispositions, previous illnesses, lifestyle, type of forest etc.). For further reading about the benefits of Forest Therapy please see our references or the International Handbook of Forest Therapy (edited by Kotte et al 2019).
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INFTA acknowledges the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants of the nation and the traditional custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work.
