International Certification Office Healing Forest creates “green pharmacies” worldwide
The “International Certification Office Healing Forest” is a new lighthouse project from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV). Its aim is to internationally promote the use of the forest – the "green pharmacy" – for health purposes. In this way, MV is supporting the development of the federal state into Germany's leading health region. The project is coordinated by BioCon Valley® GmbH, the health industry network for MV and a member of the “go-cluster” programme of the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK).
The “International Certification Office Healing Forest” of BioCon Valley® GmbH is a worldwide novelty. Its central task is to award an internationally valid “Healing Forest Certificate” to interested forest owners worldwide. For this purpose, a standardised testing process was developed and criteria for the qualification of forests as healing forests were defined. On the basis of a utilisation concept developed by the forest owners, as well as by means of a forest expertise and a medical-therapeutic expertise based on it, forests are checked internationally and especially in Europe for their suitability as healing forests. If the checked forests meet the requirements for a healing forest, the internationally valid "Healing Forest Certificate" is awarded. The project is funded by the Ministry of Economics, Infrastructure, Tourism and Labour of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The state government of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is thus investing specifically in the health potential of the “forest” and consequently in strengthening the health industry and especially health tourism. In this way, the federal state aims to further develop itself as THE health state.
Transdisciplinary and international cooperation
The network around the "International Certification Office Healing Forest” is coordinated by the “go-cluster” member BioCon Valley® GmbH. It brings together experts from the fields of public health, forestry and sustainable development as well as decision-makers from politics and health tourism, including the cluster members Landesforst MV, the Rostock University Medical Centre, the Bäderverband e. V., the State Association of Physiotherapists, the One Health Research Centre, the Board of Trustees of the Health Industry of the State of MV as well as the acting stakeholders of the healing forests designated in the state. They contribute to the "International Certification Office Healing Forests" by, for example, preparing forest appraisals or medical-therapeutic appraisals for certification, offering further education programmes in the field of forest prevention and forest therapy or physiotherapeutic offers in forests and nature, or conducting research in the fields of health promotion, sustainability standards and therapeutic forest therapies.
At the international level, the IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems and the Federal Research and Training Centre for Forests, Natural Hazards and Landscape (Austria), the Forest Therapy Hub and the tourism agency iNature (Portugal), the Kaunas University of Applied Sciences (Lithuania) and the tourism agency Bled (Slovenia), among others, are participating. Their contributions to the "International Certification Office Healing Forest " range from the development of curricula for further training courses, to offering training programmes for forest therapies in different countries and accompanying the establishment of the country-specific certification processes, to providing on-site marketing support. In doing so, they always contribute their expertise in the fields of tourism and nature therapies, therapy sciences and forestry – and in turn contribute to spreading the idea of "green pharmacies" throughout the world.
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 © BioCon Valley® GmbH  “Close exchange and cooperation with the cluster members of BioCon Valley® GmbH are crucial for the successful establishment and operation of the ,International Certification Office Healing Forest'. We bundle the many different competences of our cluster members at both regional and international level. In this way, we contribute to creating and maintaining this globally uniform catalogue of criteria for healing forests. In this way, we support the federal state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in further expanding its pioneering role in the topic of healing forests.” |
| Definition of a healing forest Healing forests are forest areas designed for therapeutic use for special indications. Treatments of diseases in the forest are suitable to favourably influence the extent of impairment caused by these diseases (tertiary prevention), if they are accompanied by trained therapists. Chronic diseases can be treated in a palliative way (palliation). National specifics are taken into account, e.g. in the definition of therapists. |
| BioCon Valley® Initiative When health meets business, the most successful industry of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is born. Around 150,000 jobs, over 6 billion euros in gross value added: the health industry is a growth engine and employment guarantor. Every fifth person works in the sector and every seventh euro of gross value added is generated here. The BioCon Valley® Initiative, the alliance of BioCon Valley Mecklenburg-Vorpommern e. V. and BioCon Valley® GmbH, is the network of this industry in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, is its central contact and motor, and sustainably strengthens employment, growth and competitiveness on a national and international scale. Together with the players in the sector, the alliance of business, science, politics and associations is turning healthy nature and innovative companies into THE health state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. |