Barry McGonigal will spread the word about environmental education at the 22nd European Forum on Urban Forestry

The 22nd European Forum on Urban Forestry (EFUF) will take place in Cologne, Germany, from May 22nd to May 24th. During this international forum, researchers and urban forests professionals gather to share their scientific knowledge and good practices.

Since 20 years, EFUF is a unique meeting place for forest and greenspace managers, planners, architects, researchers, public authorities and policy makers to share interdisciplinary experience and good practices within the field of urban greening, urban forests and urban forestry.

>> Our international LEAF director, Barry McGonigal, will attend this forum to promote the Learning about Forests programme. Indeed, nowadays, more children are growing up in cities and it is crucial to emphasize environmental education for them… and us! Barry will spread the word about the positive psychological impacts of the LEAF activities, as well as the formal approach of our programme. As scientific papers already proved it, it is necessary to expose children to nature, to raise environmental awareness and literature.

This year, “Forest and Education” is the main theme of the FAO, that´s why is is important for us to attend such an international forum. Urban forests professionals should think about children as a target audience too, when they create plans to make cities greener.

“The coupling between mental health and access to green space in your local area is something that should be considered even more in urban planning to ensure greener and healthier cities and improve mental health of urban residents in the future” Professor Jens-Christian Svenning from the Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University

To know more about green spaces and healthy cities, we advice you to read this article: Being surrounded by green space in childhood may improve mental health of adults.