Forest Therapy Trails: A Conceptual Framework and Scoping Review of Research

Abstract

While most definitions of forest therapy emphasize the role of multisensory, immersive experiences in nature to achieve human health and wellbeing outcomes, reviews of research on forest therapy to date have predominantly focused on outcomes and provide limited insight on the factors and conditions that give rise to nature experiences. In this scoping review we employ a conceptual framework developed in the context of landscape perception research to examine empirical studies of forest therapy in terms of how the fuller process of human, forest, interaction, and outcome components are conceptualized and measured. Our literature search identified 266 studies focused on forest therapy and related activities, which were coded on a number of variables related to each of the four components in our framework. While most studies reported positive mental and/or physiological health outcomes using a wide array of measures, the typical study used small, homogeneous samples of participants who engaged in limited interactions with a forest environment that was minimally described. However, our analysis also identified a wider range of findings with regard to human-forest interactions, which together provide important insights for guiding forest therapy research and the provision of forest therapy trails, settings, and programs.