I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Kalevi Korpela at the joint conferences of the Society of Outdoor Recreation Professionals and the International Union of Forest Research Organizations in May 2013. It was at this conference that we had the initial meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Society of Nature and Forest Medicine. Dr. Korpela, Professor of Psychology at the University of Tampere in Finland, is on the board of (INFOM) based in Tokyo, Japan. Dr. Korpela’s research has made significant contributions to the understanding of how nature impacts human health and well-being. He took time recently to answer several questions about his research and the “Power Forests” for wellbeing in Finland and other European countries.
Dr. Kalevi Korpela, Professor of Psychology, University of Tampere Photo courtesy University of Tampere, Finland
Hiking Research: What inspired you to pursue psychology as a career and to research how nature impacts well-being?
Kalevi Korpela: I remember being interested in psychology already in high school. After matriculation, I was thinking about architecture or psychology for university studies but only went to psychology exams. I did like and still like this Dostoyevski quote: “A human being is a mystery: if you spend your entire life trying to puzzle it out, then do not say that you have wasted your time.” At our department of psychology in Tampere University we had a tradition of environmental psychological studies dating back to early seventies. In my master’s thesis I found myself being interested in environmental psychology and writing a thesis on cognitive maps of the city.
Hiking Research: What research projects are you currently involved with?
Kalevi Korpela: The project “Urban Diversity” 2010-2013 is ending. We have tried to figure out how to combine building and the possibilities of nature in fruitful ways in process planning. The research consortium includes the Tampere University of Technology (School of Architecture), Departments of Regional Studies and Psychology at the Univ. of Tampere.
The project “Recovery from work stress: integrating perspectives of work and environmental psychology”, 2012-2016, investigates the relationship between “green exercise”, indoor plants, window views and recovery from work stress in a 3-year longitudinal survey. We also carry out interventions during the lunch break (relaxation, park walks) to investigate short-term recovery from stress during the workday.
The project “Outdoor recreation 2009”, 2010- , is a survey study of outdoor recreation and well-being using a representative sample of Finns. A recent paper about this data is Korpela, K., Borodulin, K., Neuvonen, M., Paronen, O., & Tyrväinen, L. (2013). Analyzing the mediators between nature-based outdoor recreation and emotional well-being. Journal of Environmental Psychology. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2013.11.003. (An earlier paper is also available online through the journal Health Promotion International). The research consortium includes the Finnish Forest Research Institute (FFRI/METLA), Statistics Finland, University of Tampere, The National Institute for Health and Welfare, Centre for Health Promotion Research (UKK Institute), and MTT Agrifood Research Finland.
The project “Green infrastructures for health in the future living environments (GreenHealth)”, 2013-2014 has carried out the walking experiments in Helsinki city center, an urban park and urban woodlands. The first results are in press in Journal of Environmental Psychology. The research consortium includes The Finnish Forest Research Institute (FFRI/METLA), The National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Dept of Psychology (Univ. of Tampere), and the Japanese team who has carried out tens of walking experiments in Japan: Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, (Prof., Dr. Takahide Kagawa, Dr. Yuko Tsunetsugu, and Dr. Norimasa Takayama); Nippon Medical School (Dr. MD Qing Li) and Chiba University (Prof., Dr. Yoshifumi Miyazaki)
LEADER- project “Forest Project – Network of densely wooded regions in Europe”, 2012-2013 has created awareness-enhancing / engagement-based forest trails to four countries. Forest trail partners are Finland (Finnish Forest Research Institute and University of Tampere), Sweden, Luxembourg and France. The project partners and funders also include LAG (=Leader action group) Växtlust, Sweden; LAG Müllerthal, Luxembourg; LAG Pays de la Déodatie, France; Aktiivinen Pohjois-Satakunta ry, Finland. Funders include EU, several municipalities, and some private funders.
A view from a trail in the “Power Forest” in Finland. Photo courtesy Finnish Forest Research Institute
The first trail (of this kind, ever; according to our knowledge) was opened on May 20, 2010 near Ikaalinen Spa, Finland (view brochure). We developed the trail in the “Health from the Forest” project 2008-2010 in co-operation with the Finnish Forest Research Institute (Parkano Unit) and Ikaalinen Spa. The project was funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Council of Tampere Region.
The idea is that the awareness-enhancing psychological tasks along the trail may allow even less ideal environments to be experienced in stress-alleviating ways and help people to be physically active. The tasks were written by K. Korpela and their ideas draw from several lines of research: a) experimental research results on the onset of psychological, physiological and behavioral changes in restorative natural settings, b) studies on people’s everyday favorite places and their restorative qualities, c) studies on the effects of cognitive sets and role-taking on human perception and environmental attitudes d) studies on psychology of suggestive information.
Thus, the tasks aim to i.a. induce relaxation, improve mood, induce cognitive reflection and attentional restoration, and enhance the search for a favorite place which can be socially shared.
In the LEADER-project, identical tasks were used in all four countries and the wordings were translated from the original Finnish trail signposts. User surveys are presently collected from each country to investigate people’s attitudes in these trails and tasks.
Hiking Research: What needs to happen for the use of “forest therapy” to become more accepted by healthcare providers? Is nature often used by psychotherapists in European countries?
Kalevi Korpela: We need more solid and causal evidence of the effects of forest therapy and nature’s restorative effects, in general. For example, the Finnish Current Care Guidelines are very strict and require good scientific evidence for any procedure to be accepted as care. Current Care Guidelines are independent, evidence-based clinical practice guidelines.
The guidelines are intended as a basis for treatment decisions, and can be used by physicians, healthcare professionals and citizens. The guidelines are developed by the Finnish Medical Society Duodecim in association with various medical specialist societies. We also need more co-operation, and need to provide more informing and PR work for healthcare providers. I do not know the European situation but know that there are perhaps half a dozen psychologists in Finland who use nature in their practice.
Hiking Research: What are your suggestions for using nature to help people cope with work stress? Have you worked with organizations that are utilizing nature to help employees improve health? If so, describe what they are doing?
Kalevi Korpela: I will be wiser on this after our research project (see above). But indoor plants and window views might be important in workplaces as well as possibilities for being in a greenspace during the lunchbreak. Our forest trail project has shown that spas might include these trails in their activities.
Hiking Research: Do you collaborate with forestry researchers? If so, how? How can we promote more interdisciplinary collaboration focused on how nature impacts health?
Kalevi Korpela: Yes, I have co-operated a lot with the Finnish Forest Research Institute In Finland as well as in Europe (the COST system), we have funding systems for collaboration and for creating networks for interdisciplinary collaboration. Societies like the International Society of Nature and Forest Medicine are important.
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