Forests and human health

F-HIA: Health Impacts of forests and forestry

Even in our urban and industrialized age, human health and well-being are strongly influenced by forests and trees, both globally and locally. Forests and trees generate a range of ecosystem services and provide food and medicinal compounds. Forest recreation activities counteract stress in human beings, supporting our psychological capacity and mental health. The health-promoting recreational use is expected to grow in importance.

Forest degradation has already had severe consequences for human health in many areas. Outbreaks of old and new diseases, and damage to food crops, are related to the loss of habitats of wild animals that are forced to move closer to human habitation. Sometimes forestry methods, motorized equipment, or chemicals cause enviromental damage and endanger forest-based ecosystem services.

In 2007, IUFRO (International Union of Forest Research Organizations) launched a new Task Force on Forests and Human Health (forHealth, www.forhealth.fi). Its aim is to support cross-sectoral dialogue between forestry and health professionals and all others who have an interest in forest/human health interface.

Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is a procedure that has become increasingly important for safeguarding human health in the context of development planning. It has proven useful in numerous cases from leisure services development through housing policies to construction of dams and highways (see. eg. www.who.int/hia). However, in forestry and forest context, HIA has been used only very rarely. There are obvious benefits to be found if it is more widely used.

However, the general HIA methodology used by WHO and others must be tuned to be sensitive to the specific issues that are met in forestry context. A set of guidelines is needed for the screening, scoping and appraisal phases of forest-related HIA processes. Therefore, forHealth has with its partners initiated the process of drafting preliminary guidelines for health impact assessment of forestry and forest related projects (F-HIA).

The guidelines will identify the various health impact types that a forest-related project may have, and present a model for assessing their importance. We hope to present our proposal for wider discussion in 2010.