We use some essential cookies to make this website work.
We’d like to set additional cookies to understand how you use forestresearch.gov.uk, remember your settings and improve our services.
We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services.
This work aims to explore and summarise evidence about how children and young people experience nature, including trees and woodlands. It looks at how this contact with nature, whether through school activities and learning or in leisure time, can potentially lead to a wide range of health, wellbeing and learning benefits. It arises from an increasing concern that children are not directly experiencing nature and that this could lead to children missing out on the benefits provided by these interactions.
The work so far has involved:
The work in this area started in 2005 and current work and collaboration with Norwegian researchers started in 2012. Further work is ongoing.
The work involves the following funders or partners :
Forestry Commission policy
The Forestry Commission Wood for Health strategy and Woods for Learning strategy recognises that exposure to woodlands and greenspace may help children with behavioural and emotional problems and highlights the importance of outdoor learning
The Government Forestry and Woodlands Policy Statements outlines that children should have the opportunity for outdoor learning
Forestry Commission England provides useful information and guidance to encourage and enable play for children in woodlands
Recent
O’Brien, L. Ambrose-Oji, B. Waite, S. 2016. Learning on the move: green exercise for children and young people. In press. In J Barton, R Bragg, C Wood, J Pretty (eds) Green Exercise: Linking nature, health and well-being. Earthscan, London.
Gunderson, V. Skar, M. O’Brien, L, Wold, L. Follo, G. (2016) Children and nearby nature: A nationwide parental survey from Norway. Urban Forestry and Urban Greening, 17: 116-125.
Skar, M. Gunderson, V and O’Brien, L. 2016. How to engage children with nature: why not just let them play? Children’s Geographies.
Skar, M. Gunderson, V and O’Brien, L. 2016. Why do children not play in nearby nature? Results from a Norwegian survey. Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning.
O’Brien, L. 2014. We have stopped moving: Tackling physical inactivity – a role for the Public Forest Estate in England. Forestry Commission and Forest Research.
Previous research in this area
O’Brien, L. 2010. Are we creating problems for the future? Children, young people and the concept of nature deficit disorder. FR Monograph. Forest Research, Farnham.
O’Brien, L., Burls, A., Bentsen, P., Hilmo, I., Holter, K., Haberling, D., Pirnat, J., Sarv, M., Vilbaste, K. and McLoughlin, J. 2011. Outdoor education, lifelong learning and skills development in woodlands and green spaces: the potential links to health and well-being. In K. Nilsson. M. Sangster. C. Gallis. T. Hartig. S. de Vries. K. Seeland. Forests, trees and human health. Book Chapter 12: 343-374. Springer.
O’Brien, L and Lovell, B. 2011. A Review of Forest Education Initiative in Britain. Report to the Forestry Commission. Pp. 99
Lovell, R. O’Brien, L. Owen, R. 2010. Review of the research evidence in relation to the role of trees, woods and forest in formal education and learning. Report to the Forestry Commission. Pp. 60.
O’Brien, L. 2010. ‘It’s fun to play about in’ children’s health and the outdoors – setting the scene. Countryside Recreation Network.
King, K. 2010. Lifestyle, identity and young people’s experiences of mountain biking. FC Research Note.
O’Brien, E. 2009. (invited paper) Learning outdoors: the Forest School approach. Education 3-13, 37: 45-60.
O’Brien, L. 2008. Forest School and outdoor education in Britain. Dansk Friluftsliv, 74: 8-12.
O’Brien, E. 2006. Social housing and greenspace: a case study in inner London. Forestry, 79: 535-549.
O’Brien, E and Murray, R. 2006. Forest School in England: An evaluation of three case study settings. Environmental Education, 84: 8-9.
O’Brien, E and Murray, R. 2006. A marvellous opportunity to learn: evaluating Forest School in Britain. Forest Research, Farnham, pp45.
O’Brien, E and Murray R 2005. Forest Schools in England and Wales: Woodland space to learn and grow. Environmental Education, 80: 25-27.
Murray, R and O’Brien, E. 2005. Such enthusiasm – a joy to see: an evaluation of Forest School in England. Report for the Forestry Commission.
O’Brien, E. 2005. Tackling youth disaffection through woodland vocational training. Quarterly Journal of Forestry 99: 125-130.
O’Brien, E. 2005. Bringing together ideas of social enterprise, education and community woodland: the hill holt wood approach. Scottish Forestry 59: 7-14.
Principal Social Scientist
Cookies are files saved on your phone, tablet or computer when you visit a website.
We use cookies to store information about how you use the dwi.gov.uk website, such as the pages you visit.
Find out more about cookies on forestresearch.gov.uk
We use 3 types of cookie. You can choose which cookies you're happy for us to use.
These essential cookies do things like remember your progress through a form. They always need to be on.
We use Google Analytics to measure how you use the website so we can improve it based on user needs. Google Analytics sets cookies that store anonymised information about: how you got to the site the pages you visit on forestresearch.gov.uk and how long you spend on each page what you click on while you're visiting the site
Some forestresearch.gov.uk pages may contain content from other sites, like YouTube or Flickr, which may set their own cookies. These sites are sometimes called ‘third party’ services. This tells us how many people are seeing the content and whether it’s useful.