The IV Global Summit Science, Nature and Health unfolded as a field that actively celebrates its direction through dialogue and shared attention. With more than 1,000 participants, moments of up to 300 people connected simultaneously, and a global audience from 78 countries, the Summit became a space where geography dissolved into presence.
The opening, led by representatives of the Diputació de Barcelona, including deputies Sam Núñez i Amela and Xesco Gomar Martín, set a grounded tone: this is no longer a peripheral conversation. Nature-based health is entering institutional space undeniably.
During three days, the newly introduced Global Summit Talks emerged as spaces of reflection carrying years of experience and grounded expertise. Perspectives and disciplines meeting without simplification, holding complexity, and opening conversations that felt both rigorous and genuinely alive.
- Between conservation and health, Dr. Puri Canals, coordinator of the Global Network of Networks of Marine Protected Area Managers, and Prof. Dr Helena Freitas, Professor of Ecology and Biodiversity at the University of Coimbra and UNESCO Chair in Biodiversity Safeguard for Sustainable Development, brought the conversation toward lived experience: not only systems, but the personal trajectories that sustain long-term commitment and the role of female leadership in ecological transitions.
- Alex Gesse, Executive Director of Forest Therapy Hub, and Phil Keech, Head of Sustainability at the International School of Luxembourg, addressed the limits of professionalization in nature-based interventions: ethics, standards, and what it truly means to sustain practice responsibly as the field grows.
- In the dialogue on Planetary Health, Dr. Carlos Faerron Guzman, Senior Advisor at the Planetary Health Alliance (Johns Hopkins University) and Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, together with Marta Pahissa, Director of the Planetary Health Development Center at ISGlobal, made visible the gap between evidence and action, while also presenting positive results supported by experience.
- Dr. Mathew White, Senior Scientist in Environmental and Health Psychology at the University of Vienna, and Dr. Terry Hartig, Professor of Environmental Psychology at Uppsala University, oriented the conversation toward behavior: how people actually relate to natural environments and what needs to change for those experiences to translate into measurable health benefits. One of the most celebrated moments of the Summit.
- Dr. Jill Litt, Professor of Environmental Health at the University of Colorado Boulder and Senior Researcher at ISGlobal, and Dr. Melissa Lem, Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia and co-founder of PaRx Canada, both experts at the FTHub Summer School Barcelona, New Hampshire, and Vancouver, brought the conversation to what it means to move nature prescriptions from a promising idea into real practice, and where barriers still remain.
- Finally, Giulia Catissi, research nurse and PhD student at Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, and Ruth Williamson, PhD student at the University of Missouri-Columbia, introduced a more open tone, making visible a generation of researchers that both inherits and redefines the field.
What stood out was not only the content, but the response. Questions from the audience did not skim the surface: they deepened, challenged and expanded this living ecosystem.
A Global Field, Seen From Multiple Directions
One of the perspectives came from the Asian–Pacific Leadership in Nature-based Research Module: China speakers showed a field that is not emerging, but already operational with forest therapy embedded in institutional frameworks, urban design, and regional development strategies. Prof. Weiyin Chang (Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, China), Prof. Zhiling Wang (Shanxi Agricultural University, China), and Dr Guangyu Wang (UBC, Canada, and expert trainer in FTHub Summer School Vancouver) showed implementation at scale, shaped by cultural context, population needs, and long-term planning.
In the module on Nature, Health & Urban Innovation, the combined trajectories of Mark Nieuwenhuijsen (Director of Urban Planning, Environment and Health in ISGlobal), Xavier Roget (Tourism and Culture Advisor of the Parks Network, Barcelona Provincial Council), and Dr Liz O’Brien (Principal Social Scientist of Society and Environment Research Group in UK) set a powerful starting point, bringing together decades of experience across research, public policy, and land management. The session established early on that this field is already being built and it is possible.
Where It All Lands
The Nature Connection Breaks were a place between sessions that created a different kind of attention. These moments in a programme filled with data, frameworks, and research, returned the experience to the body.
The third day extended the Summit into relationships. Through facilitated networking with the Hub Seedlings Network and the opening of the Nature Ambassadors for Sustainable Change pathway, the focus shifted from exchange to continuity. Not just who was present, but what might continue beyond the event.
What the IV Global Summit revealed is that professionalization advances with clarity, bringing stronger frameworks, ethical grounding, and a growing commitment to rigor in research and practice. A clear movement toward honesty in how evidence is generated, how results are interpreted, and how limitations are acknowledged. The level of conversation marked a shift. Exchanges carried depth, precision, and the capacity to hold complexity without simplifying it.
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