The Healthy Programmer

Thinking Under the Trees

An important part of Finnish culture, stemming from the population’s need for sunlight, is the human connection to nature. It’s expressed in everything from religion to art to the economy. In fact, Finland is one of the world’s leading wood producers, which has led to a significant national investment in forestry conservation and research. In keeping with the Finnish tradition, these studies often include forestry’s connection to humans.

The Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla) has done much of this work in conjunction with researchers in Japan, a country that might have an even deeper national tradition of connecting to nature. In fact, Japanese scientists have been studying the benefits of what they call forest-bathing ...