Healthy nature, healthy people, Oulu Parks (FI) © Parks & Wildlife Finland
Health and Protected Areas: Case Studies
Physical activity and contact with nature is essential for human health, and ‘Green exercise’ can make a significant and sustained contribution to good physical and mental health and well-being. But how can we demonstrate the public health benefits that Protected Areas provide?
EUROPARC’s Health and Protected Areas Working Group (later HPHPe Commission) has taken the first steps in building an evidence base. The group compiled a suite of case studies from the EUROPARC network to demonstrate the important work that Protected Areas have been doing in the field of health. They show the work that Protected Areas and agencies all over Europe are undertaking in different health policy areas and demonstrate the significant contribution that parks make to human health and well-being through the development of policy or the delivery of multiple initiatives.
The case studies aim to aid the promotion of European Protected Areas’ work in Europe and internationally and formed part of a toolkit for Protected Areas that the working group developed.
Case studies are available in multiple formats:
1) within the HPHPe toolkit;
2) through our webinars documentation;
3) in the “health and green exercise section” of our Knowledge Hub.
You can get a compact list of the case studies from the ” Knowledge Hub” as well as within the webinar recordings by clicking here
The case studies available in the toolkit can be accessed by clicking on the picture below.
HPHPe Toolkit: Health and Well-being Benefits from Parks and Protected Areas
Click on the image to download the toolkit
Webinars on Health
With the support of the EUROPARC “Healthy Parks Healthy People Commission“, we have organised multiple webinars. Presentations – including multiple case studies – and full recording are available.
- Webinar: Forest ecosystem services for human health. Theory and practice from Southern Europe (2024)
- Webinar: Connection to Nature – supporting people living with dementia and their carers (2023)
- Webinar: Ways to Wellbeing in Nature – Activating Parks and Protected Areas as natural health centres (2022)
- EUROPARC Roundtable – HPHPe surgery: Developing projects to deliver the Healthy Parks Healthy People Europe programme in practice (2022)
- Launch of the HPHPe Toolkit: Health and Well-being benefits from Parks and Protected Areas, during a webinar 2021
- Launch of the Healthy Parks Healthy People Europe Programme, during a webinar 2020
- Webinar: Healthy Parks, Healthy People 2019
- Webinar Parks & Protected Areas as ‘Natural Health Centres’ in 2018
- Webinar Natural Benefits: Nature, Health & Protected Areas in 2017
Do you wish to contribute to our Knowledge Hub?
If you wish to contribute with a new case study, you are invited to do so by submitting your own case study
You can also join us on LinkedIn. We have an HPHPe LinkedIn group and we look forward to learning from your experiences!
Get inspired, inspire others and stay tuned!
