A Study on Residents’ Perception towards the Importance of Forest Therapy in the Central Region of China: Based on the Cases in Korea

Abstract

Background and objective: Recently, forest therapy has received strong support from the Chinese government and gradually embarked on the road of development. However, compared with South Korea, forest therapy started late in China. And it is still in the exploration stage of theoretical research and industrial practice. To study the development of forest therapy in China, we review the legal system and development of forest therapy in Korea. This study uses online surveys to help us understand the level of awareness of the importance of forest therapy in central China. And it also provides a reference for the further development of forest therapy in China.Methods: The methods used for this analysis were Chi-square test, one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), principal component analysis (PCA), and one-way Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) .Results: Our findings showed that the perception about forest therapy was significantly different among people with different educational level (χ² = 25.526, <i>p</i> < .001). The cognition of forest therapy is significantly different from the cognition of the importance of natural healing projects (<i>p</i> < .001) and pro-environmental projects (<i>p</i> < .001). Moreover, there was a significant difference in the perception towards the importance of 18 forest therapy facilities and 9 industrial development influencing factors with or without forest therapy awareness.Conclusion: The conclusion is that our participants have low awareness of forest therapy, but they have great expectations of forest therapy. In addition, the forest environment and emergency medical facilities reflect the recognition of the importance, including treatment programs, treatment facilities and factors affecting industrial development. Therefore, considering the successful experience of forest therapy in Korea, this study proposes practical measures to strengthen publicity, facility construction and treatment program development.