Effect of Forest Users’ Stress on Perceived Restorativeness, Forest Recreation Motivation, and Mental Well-Being during COVID-19 Pandemic

Lee, Don-Gak; Kim, Jin-Gun; Park, Bum Jin; Shin, Won-sop

doi:10.3390/ijerph19116675

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 47 publications

(48 reference statements)

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“…In addition, the authors demonstrated that the remaining two strategies were predictors of increased forest use during the pandemic. Lee et al [27] confirmed in their study that a greater frequency of visiting forest areas leads to greater stress resistance. The authors argued that this was due to the phytoncide released by the trees.…”

Section: Contact With Nature and Mitigating The Negative Effects Of C...mentioning

confidence: 76%

“…These data should cover aspects such as ecosystem services (potential and supply), the condition of green spaces, and benefits to society, including health benefits, among others [45,70,104,105]. The availability of reliable data is especially important in the post-pandemic period, as the habits and needs of different user groups may have changed [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42]. Yamazaki et al [106] emphasized that it is essential for spatial planners to consider short-and long-term changes in user needs.…”

Section: Cities' Spatial Policy-post-covid-19 Challenges and Lessons ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies conducted in various countries referred to the recreational use of green spaces, including the aspect of human mobility, frequency and duration of visits, and choice of recreational sites [25,26]. Researchers also focused on studies that described the effects of green spaces on people's health and well-being during times of public health crises [27,28]. Another group consisted of studies on the spatial policies of cities and regions with respect to the availability of green spaces for recreation [29,30].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Unveiling the Essential Role of Green Spaces during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond

Ciesielski,

Gołos,

Stefan

et al. 2024

Forests

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The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the essential role of urban and rural green spaces for societies coping with global public health crisis. During this particular time, a significant body of research was devoted to human–nature relationships, as well as the use and importance of green spaces, both from the management and visitors’ perspectives, along with the vital role of nature in human health and wellbeing. Furthermore, the pandemic experience induced new paradigms in spatial and urban planning, along with the management of forest and protected areas seeing the crucial role of green spaces in shaping long-term socio-environmental resilience and sustainability. Thus, after the official end of the pandemic, our study aimed to provide a systematic review of the international research related to green spaces within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on those published between 2020 and 2023. The literature search within SCOPUS and Web of Science databases was conducted on 16 May 2023. A dataset of 161 articles was analyzed using a two-stage analysis. In the first stage, screening based on the title, abstract, and keywords was carried out. In the second stage, a detailed full text analysis was carried out, resulting in a final dataset of 66 articles related to the scope of this review. This article gives an in-depth methodological and conceptual overview, also referring to the applied research and management context related to green spaces in urban and rural environments. It concludes with lessons learned and poses open questions for future research related to green space planning and management. The literature review shows that institutions managing green spaces in cities and forests are facing new challenges. These include pursuing sustainable management policies in cities, ensuring equitable access to urban green space and community participation in the decision-making process, adapting suburban forest management to social expectations, and the recreational development of forest areas taking into account social needs and ecosystem sustainability.

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Section: Contact With Nature and Mitigating The Negative Effects Of C...mentioning

confidence: 76%

Section: Cities' Spatial Policy-post-covid-19 Challenges and Lessons ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Unveiling the Essential Role of Green Spaces during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond

Ciesielski,

Gołos,

Stefan

et al. 2024

Forests

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“…Ultimately, it remains the responsibility of governments to recognize and acknowledge the demands for and benefits of forest recreation for the whole society and provide sufficient incentives for forest owners and managers to safeguard and produce an expanded, inclusive FES portfolio based on forests that are less vulnerable to disturbances. In Europe, this vision appears to overlap with the desired turn of the forestry sector toward closer-to-nature forestry management as a concept proposed in the EU Forest Strategy for 2030 (Larsen et al 2022 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increased appreciation of forests and their restorative effects during the COVID-19 pandemic

Pichlerová

Výbošťok

Önkal

et al. 2023

Ambio

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Public expectations of forests as high-quality restorative environments that facilitate subjective well-being and stress relief along with numerous health benefits have been rising sharply during recent decades. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic and its accompanying restrictive measures also transformed forests into some of the few places to spend time away from home. The presented study drew on the assumption that the pandemic situation and a rise in the number of forest visits would affect the experience, recognition, and appreciation of the well-being aspects related to spending time in forests. The study goal was to elucidate the potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the relationships between forest visits, well-being and stress relief, emotions, perception of nature and forest value and importance, pro-environmental behavior, and societal expectations of the role of forests and forest ecosystem services. A survey using a digital questionnaire was conducted several months after the pandemic outbreak on a representative sample of the Slovak population. The Wilcoxon test and ordinal regression analysis were used to identify significant relationships, e.g., between the recency of anger episodes and the number of forest visits. The results showed that the pandemic strengthened the perception of forests as a high-quality restorative environment and that emotions associated with forest visits played an important role in the perceived importance of forests and their possible overexploitation. The results underscore the urgent need to put demands for forest recreation on par with the forest bioeconomy and to sensitize forest visitors to management and conservation requirements.

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“…Limited research has focused on the effect of the COVID-19 epidemic on the increased movement of people in the forest environment and the exploitation of the positive effects of the forest on human health (e.g., [6,22,[34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41]). Moreover, there has been little research (e.g., [42]) on the effect of restrictions associated with the reduction in movement of people during the epidemic, including in the forest environment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban Forest Recreation and Its Possible Role throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic

Bamwesigye

Fialová

Kupec

et al. 2023

Forests

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Urban forests provide benefits in terms of the environment and society. Many people living in urban areas could profit from the recreational services provided by urban forests to alleviate the physical and psychological stresses caused by closure restrictions during the COVID-19 epidemic. However, limited research has been conducted on the role of forest recreation during the COVID-19 lockdown to support future policy decisions regarding such dramatic circumstances. The study aims to investigate the frequency of visitors in the reference Training Forest Enterprise Masaryk Forest Křtiny in Brno, Czech Republic, and to verify if the lockdown led to its intensified use, under the context of weather conditions. Data were collected using a Pyro Box Compact reader and TRAFx Infrared Trail Counter. Regression analysis was performed to determine whether individual weather factors significantly influenced the intensity of forest visitations before and during COVID-19. The number of visits in 2021 during the strict lockdown and post-lockdown periods was significantly higher during spring and autumn than in 2016 and 2017, respectively. The frequency pattern of forest users visibly changed in 2021, and the total number of visits was much higher, even though 2021 had worse weather than the reference years before the pandemic. The results show the recreational use and importance of the forest, especially during the pandemic. This work is a continuation of our previous research with regard to this area, which indicated the importance of forest recreational services for the well-being and health of city dwellers.

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Effect of Forest Users’ Stress on Perceived Restorativeness, Forest Recreation Motivation, and Mental Well-Being during COVID-19 Pandemic

Cited by 9 publications

References 47 publications

Unveiling the Essential Role of Green Spaces during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond

Unveiling the Essential Role of Green Spaces during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond

Increased appreciation of forests and their restorative effects during the COVID-19 pandemic

Urban Forest Recreation and Its Possible Role throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic

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