Magical Places, Magical Numbers – Quantifying the health and well-being benefits of Green Spaces
In this webinar, we delved into two case studies from Finland and Scotland, examining the economic strategies and tools that enable park managers to gain insights into how their National Parks and Protected Areas contribute to health outcomes, also making a compelling case for increased investment in these areas from a health standpoint.
National Parks and Protected Areas where people connect and experience nature are increasingly recognised in policy and practice as natural health centres of importance for the health and well-being of both visitors and local communities. Developing a better understanding of these benefits and quantifying them in health terms is critical to developing effective Healthy Parks, Healthy People programmes with the health sector.
Below you will find the introductory presentation slides (including the audience segmentation), the inputs of both our speakers and the Q&A documentation. The latter also includes additional resources to help support “making the case” for initiating actions in Parks and Protected Areas that contribute to people health and well-being in collaboration with the medical and social sectors.
The programme
Case Studies presentation
Nature Pays Back: How Finland’s National Parks Improve Public Health and Save Money – Tiina Hakkarainen
Quantifying the health benefits of outdoor spaces – a case-study from the health estate in Scotland- Neil Chalmers
Neil Chalmer's presentationQ&A
Moderation
Peter Rawcliffe – Head of People and Places Activity in NatureScot and Chair of EUROPARC Federation’s Health and Protected Areas Commission.
Peter Rawcliffe is EUROPARC Federation former Vice-President and active in the Healthy Parks Healthy People Commission since its foundation.
The speakers
Neil Chalmers – Health Economist at Public Health Scotland
BA (Hons) Economics, MSc Agricultural Economics, Master of Public Health (MPH), PhD (thesis in Applied and Agricultural Economics)
Neil’s background brings together Microeconomics, Economic modelling and Public Health. His current role has involved working on Economic Evaluations such as: Minimum Unit Pricing of alcohol and COVID-19 vaccination delivery models. Outside of his Health Economist role, he supervises MPH dissertation students working on topics related to Public Health Economics at the University of Edinburgh. He previously worked as an Economist (research fellow) at the University of Aberdeen’s Rowett Institute. He currently sits on the Agricultural Economics Society executive committee.
Tiina Hakkarainen – Manager of Corporate Relations at Metsähallitus
Tiina Hakkarainen is Manager of Corporate Relations at Metsähallitus, Parks & Wildlife Finland. She holds a Master of Science in Forestry and has over 15 years of experience in promoting outdoor recreation.