Right after the "One Health Conference" of the recently founded "Helmholtz Institute for One Health" in Greifwald, representatives of various institutions visited the Cure- and Healing Forest in Heringsdorf on 27 April 2022.
The transdisciplinary research consortium "One Health Research Centre" is affilated to the "Helmholtz Institute for One Health". It is dedicated to the connections and interdependencies between quality of life, health and climate protection. Based on this, the consortium develops holistic approaches for health promotion and disease prevention and aims define sustainability standards for urban development. The "One Health Research Centre" sets five thematic priorities: well-being, clean water, sustainable cities and communities, sustainable consumption, and climate and environmental protection.
Here is a great deal of overlap with the goals of the International Certification Center Healing Forest of the BioCon Valley® GmbH, which focuses on the use of forests for well-being and health as well as therapy of patients.
The first meeting between the teams of the "One Health Research Centre" and the International Certification Office Heilwald took place in the magnificent scenery of Europe's first Cure- and Healing Forest in Heringsdorf. The visit to the forest was enlightening, as the Heilwald concept brings together various aspects of medicine, therapy and prevention and focuses in particular on the natural resource of the forest as a space and source for health-promoting activities.
Dr. Karin Lehmann from the Heringsdorf spa administration guided the visitors through the healing forest and introduced the concept and the various stations of the healing forest. She emphasised that children's health was particularly close to her heart. For this reason, a special healing forest for children was designed in Heringsdorf and opened on 21 September 2021. The guests were impressed by the possibilities offered by the forest.
We would like to thank Dr. Lehmann for the very informative and inspiring tour and look forward to future cooperation with the team of the "One Health Research Centre".