池井 晴美

Abstract Forests provide a variety of ecosystem services that contribute in various ways to human well-being. In times of land-use pressures, urbanisation, and nature degradation, the societal demand for forest-based therapeutic uses is increasing. Although nature-related therapies and the beneficial effects of nature on health and well-being are an old concept in cultures such as Asia and, more recently, Europe, forest therapy offers are increasingly taking hold in the forest recreation landscape. This Commentary paper identifies recent forest therapy offers and research in Asia and Europe that focus on the therapeutic effects of forests and examine their underlying rationales, practices, and status. In particular, we elaborate the socioeconomic potential of forest therapy to contribute to human health and sustainable forest management. Based on a scoping review on forest therapy offers and research, we found that countries such as Japan and South Korea are ahead of European countries in the professionalization of forest therapy offers and respective studies. While the number of studies that demonstrate the positive health benefits of forests are increasing, there is a lack of understanding the link with forest management approaches and forest and health policies. A lack of socioeconomic evaluation hinders its successful integration into policy frameworks, and prevents its use as an alternative forestry product or preventive medical treatment. For forest therapy to become part of the forestry portfolio and a medical alternative, we recommend: • Interdisciplinary research approaches and new actor alliances that link societal demands for forest therapy with insights from forest management and medical health research, • Transdisciplinary research and multi-actor approaches to link insights from forest and medical research with practitioners’ skills for forest management, service design, and communication, • To identify trade-offs and conflict potentials with forest therapy, for example in relation to timber production or questions of insurance in case of injuries by falling branches etc., that allow to develop integrated and sustainable solutions, • Policy backup and economic support for forest managers and owners to compensate for their efforts to manage their forests for therapeutic purposes • Recognition of forest therapy as an explicit part of the forestry portfolio and an alternative medical offer for clinical treatments.

Abstract In Japanese households, it is customary to walk barefoot on wooden floors. Previous reports on the psychological and physiological relaxing effects of feet contact with uncoated solid wood have already been published. However, there are no studies on the effects of feet contact with coated wood, which is commonly used for residential floors. This study aimed to validate the psychological and physiological relaxing effects of sole contact with oil-finished wood. In total, 27 women university students (mean age: 21.9 ± 1.9 years) participated in this study. Psychological indices such as the modified semantic differential method and the Profile of Mood States Second Edition were used. The oxyhemoglobin (oxy-Hb) concentrations in the prefrontal cortex were determined using near-infrared time-resolved spectroscopy. The sympathetic nervous activity and the parasympathetic nervous activity were measured using heart rate variability. The flat plate for tactile stimulation was oil-finished wood, and uncoated wood and marble were used for comparison. The sole of the feet of each participant touched each material for 90 s. Feet contact with oil-finished and uncoated wood had relaxing effects on psychological and physiological responses compared with marble. The relaxing effects of oil-finished wood and uncoated wood were similar. That is, they significantly increased subjective feelings of comfort and relaxation, improved mood states, and decreased oxy-Hb concentration in the left prefrontal cortex compared with marble. However, there were no statistically significant differences in terms of right prefrontal cortex and sympathetic nervous activities between oil-finished wood and marble. Oil-finished wood had a slightly weaker physiological relaxation effect than uncoated wood.