Community Forests and Public Health: A Research Agenda

The natural environment is integral to supporting healthy and resilient communities. Community forests (CFs) are forested parcels, typically in rural areas, where community members have access, share governance, and receive various benefits. While considerable research demonstrates that urban parks and forests are important for human health, similar assessments are less available for CFs specifically. Although CFs exist in multiple countries, their policy, ecological, ownership, and governance contexts differ significantly. This review focuses on CFs in the United States. The goals of this project were to systematically review current evidence on the relationship between CFs and human health, identify knowledge gaps in the existing research, and propose a scientific research agenda that identifies critical questions related to CFs and public health in the U.S., with application in other contexts. We conducted a systematic review of the literature, screening 351 studies and assessing twenty-four full-text articles, only one of which met inclusion criteria. This mixed-methods study characterized 70 CFs in the Eastern U.S. and featured four case studies. The majority of CFs (93%) and all case studies identified recreational use as their most common purpose. The evidence base on the health implications of CFs is very thin. Targeted research on CFs and their impact on health could provide evidence to inform CF processes and help optimize their health outcomes. We propose a research agenda on CFs in the U.S. based on several pathways of public health promotion: nature contact, climate mitigation/adaptation, economic opportunities, community cohesion, and equity.