After months of methodological design and the first round of facilitator trainings in Portugal, the NATURELAB capacity-building programme continued its international path. This week, the initiative moved to Peru, where the next stage of training took place in the forests of Oxapampa, one of the country’s most biodiverse regions.
Recognised as part of a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 2010, Oxapampa lies within a territory of more than 1.8 million hectares of forests and ecosystems that host extraordinary biological diversity. Often described as one of the cleanest cities in Peru, the area provided a living landscape where nature-based interventions could be held in direct dialogue with ecological richness.
Within this setting, the Forest Therapy Hub team led an in-person training that continued the capacity-building phase of the NATURELAB project. The training brought together students and future facilitators who had previously participated in the project’s online learning phase.
The sessions focused on translating methodology into practice. Participants worked directly with the FTHub 5 Components of Nature-based Interventions, the framework that structures the NATURELAB approach to therapeutic programmes in nature, a shared architecture that allows interventions to be both rigorous and adaptable for diverse landscapes and cultural contexts.
During the first day, the programme introduced participants to the practical application of The 5 Components. After an initial orientation, the group explored how nature-based interventions are designed, reviewing projects developed during the online training phase and observing a full Nature-Based Therapy session delivered by Alex Gesse, Trainer in FTHub.
The focus shifted from observation to facilitation. Participants prepared and guided their own interventions, applying the methodological structure while adapting their work to the characteristics of Oxapampa landscape. These sessions were followed by collective reflection on implementation strategies and on how the NATURELAB programmes can be carried forward in real community contexts.
The training in Oxapampa formed part of a broader international effort to prepare facilitators capable of implementing nature-based interventions across multiple territories. Nearly one hundred professionals were trained in this initial phase of the project, with the expectation that the network will expand to more than six hundred practitioners in the coming months.
As NATURELAB continues to unfold across landscapes and cultures, each training site becomes a learning environment and a testing ground for how nature-based therapies can be applied with methodological consistency while remaining responsive to local ecosystems and communities.
Agissez maintenant en vous inscrivant à nos formations de Guide de Bains de Forêt et de Praticien en Thérapie Forestière. Grandissons ensemble en vous dotant des compétences essentielles pour guider des expériences transformatrices dans la nature.
