by Anne Bolle Royal Forestry Society of Belgium, Project Manager for \u00abForest4Youth\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On 13 May, nearly eighty members of Royal Forestry Society of Belgium (RFSB) met in Namur for a field trip organised ahead of the General Assembly in Upigny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The location was not insignificant. A few months earlier, Beau Vallon, a psychiatric and mental health care institution in Namur, became the owner of the woodland located behind its buildings. A forest that it has named \u00abla for\u00eat des \u00catres\u00bb (the forest of Beings), where forest-based care activities now occupy a clearer and better-organised role, with facilities and management progressively structured on the basis of recommendations developed with UNature1<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This acquisition was not a given. Put up for sale by the religious community that founded the Beau Vallon psychiatric hospital, the forest prompted internal discussions. The project owes a great deal to the commitment of J\u00e9r\u00f4me Thonon, a psychologist at Beau Vallon, who has long taken his patients into the forest and has trained in nature (re)connection. Convinced of the benefits of these practices, he helped to bring the initiative to fruition. It is this very forest, currently undergoing therapeutic certification, that the participants came to walk through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before the participants were split into two groups, Fran\u00e7ois Rassart, director of Beau Vallon, officially received the PEFC label (sustainable management) for the For\u00eat des \u00catres. This is not just a protocol detail. It is a prerequisite: any forest applying for therapeutic certification must first be able to demonstrate sustainable silvicultural management. Before being a place of healing, a therapeutic forest remains a well-managed forest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n To facilitate discussion, two groups were formed. Each group comprised a RFSB guide, a forest manager and a healthcare professional. This arrangement was designed to foster dialogue between three perspectives that rarely intersect in the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the first group, Philippe de Wouters and Amir Bouyahi, from RFSB, engaged the participants in a lively back-and-forth discussion with Dr Fran\u00e7ois-Xavier Polis, a psychiatrist at the Dave Neuropsychiatric Centre (the \u00abAthanor\u00bb adolescent unit), and Patrick Vandenbroucke, technical and logistics director at Beau Vallon. Rather than simply presenting information, they chose to encourage questions, allowing the forester and the therapist to freely voice their queries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the second group, Anne Bolle, project lead for Forest4Youth at RFSB, was accompanied by S\u00e9bastien Jandrain, a forest manager commissioned by Beau Vallon, and Marie-Christine Werner, a care worker at the facility. Her account, deeply rooted in the patients\u2019 day-to-day experiences, made a particular impression on the participants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marie-Christine didn't speak about theory. She recounted what she observes, week after week. In the forest, teenagers are literally different. More open. More interested. More attentive. The permanent need for structure, redirection and calls to order, so present in the hospital, almost fades away by itself. As if the forest were doing some of the work in her place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To concretely illustrate this observation, she shared a scene she experienced the week before the general meeting. The institution had just taken in two pairs of hedgehogs with a view to their reintroduction, and the young people did not just settle them in the forest: since then, they have been looking after their wellbeing, feeding them cat kibble and bringing them water. \u00abIt's wonderful to see them caring for these little animals,\u00bb she confided, \u00abin a forest that, in turn, cares for them.\u00bb The image, in its simplicity, speaks volumes: something has bonded; teenagers usually perceived as vulnerable are becoming \u00abprotectors\u00bb, with the forest, in the background, acting as a benevolent third party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the first group, Dr Fran\u00e7ois-Xavier Polis complemented this testimony by discussing the short therapeutic stays organised in private forests by the Dave neuropsychiatric centre. One anecdote particularly struck the audience: during the closing session at the end of the hospital stay, when the young people speak, what they talk about, often to the exclusion of everything else, is the forest. Not the carers, not the therapies, not the buildings\u2026 the forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Throughout the walk, the question was on everyone's lips: what actually distinguishes an \u00abordinary\u00bb forest from one intended for therapeutic purposes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The RFSB is addressing this with a tool currently being finalised, the PTFI (Forest Therapeutic Potential Index)2<\/sup>). Informed by a review of over sixty recent scientific publications, it offers a multi-faceted framework for analysis:<\/p>\n\n\n\n One point has been highlighted repeatedly in the field: no single criterion is exclusionary on its own. The PTFI is not a verdict. It is a dialogue tool which, in the face of each shortcoming, opens up a recommendation and a joint path for action between forester and caregiver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A few elements caught particular attention: the winding paths, which invite one to slow down and sustain what the psychologists Kaplan called \u00absoft fascination\u00bb; the dead wood, an indicator of ecological maturity and also a support for the imagination; the soundscape, the richness of which is directly correlated with the restoration of attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is undoubtedly the most sensitive question for an audience of woodland owners, and it was not avoided. This forest, which is in the process of gaining therapeutic certification, remains a productive forest. The participants actually noticed the markings. The proceeds from this felling will notably be used to fund the facilities linked to the site's therapeutic purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The message put forward by RFSB was as follows: a landowner can set a specific objective for their forest without sacrificing the economic aspect of its management. Le Beau Vallon is not an example of a conflict, but of a harmonious balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moreover, scepticism is legitimate; indeed, it is healthy when faced with an emerging approach such as this. Behind the questions raised lie concrete concerns: economic viability, consistency in management, and the long-term sustainability of land uses. Rather than avoiding them, we must embrace them, address them and document them. It is precisely in this spirit that RFSB has joined the European Forest4Youth project: to move from intuition to evidence, from anecdotal accounts to evaluation, and ultimately to enable everyone to form an informed opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Forest4Youth is an Interreg project bringing together five partner countries. Its aims: to demonstrate that complementary therapy (alongside conventional medicine) can benefit teenagers experiencing psychological distress, and to equip healthcare professionals and foresters with the tools to set up these therapies in forests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Three gaps need to be filled to convince the public authorities:<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the end of June, a first version of a practical guide to therapeutic forest outings, intended jointly for healthcare workers and foresters, will be published. It will be developed further based on feedback from the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This forest is, in practice, already a therapeutic environment: the activities carried out by carers bear witness to this. The work of RFSB, alongside its European partners, is to provide these practices with a framework, tools and recognition, so that one day what currently benefits a few may become accessible to as many people as possible, wherever the need arises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And at the end of the path, the ambition remains simple: that through spending time in the forest, a young person instils within themselves the certainty that, for the rest of their life, whenever they feel the need, they will be able to recharge their batteries there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. UNature is a not-for-profit organisation operating in Canada, Luxembourg, Switzerland and France. For around ten years, it has been bridging the gap between scientific research into the benefits of nature and practical application, through nature-reconnection programmes and certified training courses for professionals (in health, education and business).<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Inspired by the Potential Biodiversity Index (PBI), which many landowners are familiar with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland: institution located in Dublin and specialising in the teaching and training of medicine and surgery in Ireland.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Retour sur la visite organis\u00e9e lors de l’assembl\u00e9e g\u00e9n\u00e9rale de la SRFB, le 13 mai 2026, au Beau Vallon par Anne Bolle Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Royale Foresti\u00e8re de Belgique, Responsable du projet \u00ab Forest4Youth \u00bb Le 13 mai dernier, pr\u00e8s de quatre-vingts membres de la Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Royale Foresti\u00e8re de Belgique (SRFB) s’\u00e9taient donn\u00e9 rendez-vous \u00e0 Namur pour […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":40738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":12,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,256],"tags":[863,333,796,864,252],"authors":[],"class_list":["post-40740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actualite","category-sante-des-forets","tag-forest4youth","tag-foret","tag-foret-et-sante-mentale","tag-jeunes","tag-sante-des-forets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kbbm.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kbbm.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kbbm.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kbbm.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kbbm.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40740"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.kbbm.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40742,"href":"https:\/\/www.kbbm.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40740\/revisions\/40742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kbbm.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kbbm.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kbbm.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kbbm.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40740"},{"taxonomy":"authors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kbbm.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/authors?post=40740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A multi-voiced tour<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\u00abIn the forest, we no longer need to rein them in\u00bb<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What makes a forest a therapeutic place?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Production and care: an exclusive choice?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Forest4Youth: experience, measure, share<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Beyond the visit<\/h3>\n\n\n\n