Enlightening integration opportunities among ecosystem services ‘forest therapy’ and rural communities

Forest therapy (FT) may be described as a monodisciplinary, medical doctors, research-based practice supporting the healing of individuals through their immersion in forest atmosphere. This interdisciplinary, pilot, study aims to portrait: (1) FT services and their quality attributes; (2) value drivers most stable over time; and (3) opportunities to create value and capture part of it by rural communities living in the Eastern Alps. 22 and 32 families with asthmatic children gave their informed consent to participate in a survey carried out in 2013 and 2017 and originating a structured database. Average values, and standard deviation were calculated to quantify service valuability. Pearson's correlation coefficients were analysed to quantify stability of results obtained. Paediatricians can play a crucial role in both creating a FT-based health services distribution system as well as stimulating rural communities to partner. The latter are required to develop new FT health ecosystem services (ES) while helping decision makers to achieve public health targets and sustainable development ones. Further research directions are discussed.