Summary
The Active Forests programme (‘Active Forests’) aims to create a physical activity habit for life for visitors to the public forest estate in England.
This page summarises details of the monitoring and evaluation of phase 3 of the Active Forests programme, called ‘Removing Barriers’. This phase runs for three years from 2023-2026 across 20 sites, from large forests in national parks to peri-urban forests.
The mission for phase 3 is to provide opportunities for everyone to actively engage and connect with the nation’s forests to improve their health and wellbeing. It has three goals:
- Create accessible and inclusive environments
- Maintain, grow and diversify the opportunities available across the nation’s forests at our forest centre sites
- Deliver health and wellbeing benefits and tackle inequalities
It includes four main areas of delivery:
- The core programme
- Self-led wellbeing trails
- Inclusive forests, focused on improving physical accessibility
- A social prescribing project called ‘Feel Good in the Forest’.
Phase 3 retains an emphasis on core activities – walking, running and cycling – but also continues to complement this with other low intensity wellbeing activities.
Social prescribing project (Feel Good in the Forest)
The social prescribing project builds on the social prescribing pilot. It is delivered at four Feel Good in the Forest sites (Chopwell, Guisborough, National Forest and Thames Chase) in addition to ‘mini-projects’ at other Forestry England sites. Feel Good in the Forest aims to:
- Reach people with physical or mental health conditions and those facing the greatest health inequalities
- Support people to be more active, build resilience and feel restored, connect with others and the forest environment, feel empowered to try new experiences, and to be included in their forest
- Have a legacy or progression that shows the funded activities have resulted in longer-term engagement with nature
To find out more about the Active Forests programme and Forest Research’s wider involvement in monitoring and evaluating it across other phases of delivery, visit the Active Forests overview page.
Research Objectives
- What types of physical activities are undertaken and enjoyed in forests as part of the Active Forests programme and by whom (demographics)?
- What is the number of physical activity visits as part of the programme and how many are potentially from Equality, Diversity and Inclusion audiences?
- What is the level of people’s physical activity per week, what is the duration, frequency and main activity of participants for developing into to a Quality Adjusted Life Year?
- What is the wellbeing of the participants (ONS-4 personal wellbeing questions) compared to the UK population?
- What attracts EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) audiences to the Active Forests programme, what do they gain from being involved in terms of benefits, restoration, resilience and empowerment, and are there any specific issues/barriers that make it difficult for them to engage regularly or in the long term with the programme?
- Is there some evidence of intention for positive or sustained behaviour change being realised from participating in the Active Forests programme, if so, what are these changes?
Findings and Recommendations
- The total number of visits were 12.3 million over 3 years.
- There was a total estimate of £125 million Quality Adjusted Life Year cost savings over the 3 years based on main type of physical activity, duration and frequency of activity
- Mental health value of visits to the forest sites were valued at £4.9 million based on avoided costs due to reduced incidences of depression and anxiety.
- The main benefits of participating in physical activity in the forest were:
- Sense of fun and enjoyment (94% stated gaining this benefit)
- Mental wellbeing (93%)
- A feeling of escape and freedom (91%)
- Physical wellbeing (91%).
- The three most popular activities were walking, cycling and running.
- 40% of participants were inactive or fairly active.
- However, 48% stated they aimed to become more active in the next month.
- Those who are active or fairly active score better for happiness, life being worthwhile and life satisfaction while the inactive score slightly worse. Those who were inactive or fairly active were slightly more anxious than the national population figures for England. This could be because the AFP is reaching its target groups who may be generally more anxious. Potentially through the AFP supporting these people to become more physically active and remain active it might reduce their anxiety levels.
- Wellbeing trails were installed at 22 sites and there were an estimated 1.2 million visits associated with the trails.
- Feel Good in the Forest (FGITF) took place at four main sites and included a green social prescribing component which connects people to non-medical support for their health and wellbeing. There were also 35 mini FGITF projects that took place on 17 sites.
- Forestry England delivered 32 training days for healthcare professionals engaging 941 participants in person and online. The training supported them in gaining knowledge, confidence and the first-hand experience needed to refer patients to forest activities.
Downloads
Case Study (transition phase): Forest Runner, Forest of Dean
Case Study (transition phase): Forest Bathing Participants, Salcey Forest
Case Study (transition phase): Forest Bathing Activity Leaders, Salcey Forest
Case Study (transition phase): Yoga in the Forest, Sherwood Pines
Case Study (transition phase): Ecstatic Dancing, Wendover Forest
Case Study (transition phase): Breeze into the Forest, Multiple Forests
Case Study (phase 3 core programme): Wellbeing Walk, Hamsterley Forest
Case Study (phase 3 core programme): Yoga & Forest Bathing Retreat, Salcey Forest
Case Study (phase 3 social prescribing): Reading Ramblers, Chopwell Wood
Case Study (phase 3 social prescribing): NHS Enhance Training Day, Thetford Forest
Case Study (phase 3 social prescribing): Nature Journalling, Guisborough Forest
Case Study (phase 3 social prescribing): Walking Talking Tuesdays, Sence Valley Forest Park
Case Study (phase 3 social prescribing): Stroll and Stretch, Hicks Lodge
Case Study (phase 3 core programme): Walk & Talk 999 Group, Sherwood Pines
Case study (phase 3 social prescribing) Woodland Warblers
Case study (phase 3 social prescribing) Gentle Exercise
Disc Golf - Alice Holt - Summary - Oct 2025
Green Health Routes - Guisborough Forest - Summary - Dec 2025
This Woman Runs - Salcey Nov 2025
Added value of the Active Forests programme
Transition Phase
The transition phase ran for a year after phase 2 completed, and before phase 3 began. This phase involved a strong focus on providing time to learn lessons from Phase 2 of the programme and develop Phase 3 through discussions and reflection between Forestry England and Sport England. Transition phase case studies are available alongside Phase 2 case studies in the downloads’ section below.
Reports
The final report is expected to be available in 2026.
Funding & Partners
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Forestry England -
Sport England