Kickoff meeting of the PHorestAll project: Planetary Health by Healing Forests as Nature-Based Solutions

Researchers Isabel Henriques and Joana Costa from the Centre for Functional Ecology (CFE), University of Coimbra, took part in the kickoff meeting of the PHorestAll project: Planetary Health by Healing Forests as Nature-Based Solutions, held in Białystok, Poland.

The project is funded under the Biodiversa+ programme, with a total budget of over 1 million euros, and involves 11 partners from Portugal, Slovenia, Poland, Lithuania, Austria and Taiwan.

PHorestALL aims to develop guidelines for identifying and evaluating forest areas with therapeutic potential, promote green prescriptions, and enhance environmental literacy, with expected scientific, social, and policy impact at an international level. The project is aligned with the One Health concept, which views human, all living beings, and environmental health as interdependent components of a single ecosystem.

The CFE team, which also includes CFE coordinator Helena Freitas and researcher Isabel Silva, leads the Work Package aimed at establishing connections between forest biological parameters, such as the soil microbiome and the production of volatile compounds, and human health and well-being.