World Forum on Forest Therapy 2025

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Dr. Gisela Immich is a globally renowned expert in the development of therapeutic forests and the implementation of forest therapy in clinical and outpatient healthcare settings

Since January 2026, she has been leading the newly established academic research group for forest therapy at the recently founded Chair of Integrative Health Care and Prevention at the University of Augsburg, Germany, which is widely recognised as the leading university with a research focus on environmental and human health.

The new chair is affiliated with the well-known Institute for Environmental Medicine and Integrative Health at the University Medical Center Augsburg, which supports all kinds of research activities with its excellent laboratory.

Dr. Darija Cvikl is an Assistant Professor of Sustainable Tourism Management and a researcher at the International School for Social and Business Studies in Slovenia. She is dedicated to the institutionalisation of forest therapy and holds a doctorate in the field of forest tourism. She has over 30 years of professional experience bridging the commercial sector, academia, and applied research. Her work focuses on the institutionalisation of forest therapy, the development of therapeutic tourism, and cross-sector collaboration.

She is the founder of the Institute of Forest Tourism and a member of the Slovenian Association for Forest Therapy. She is the initiator and co-author of the nationally accredited educational programme Forest Therapy Practitioner in the Republic of Slovenia, and the author and co-author of academic contributions in the field of forest therapy. She currently serves as Secretary of the International Society of Forest Therapy® (ISFT®) and as a Board Director at the World Forum on Forest Therapy (WFoFT). She contributes to international initiatives in forest therapy and intersectoral collaboration.

Yoshifumi Miyazaki, PhD, is an Emeritus Professor and Specially Appointed Researcher at the Center for Environment, Health and Field Sciences, Chiba University, Japan.

He obtained his Doctor of Medicine from Tokyo Medical and Dental University in 1985. He has held positions at Tokyo Medical and Dental University and the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, and later served as Professor and Vice President at Chiba University’s Center for Environment, Health and Field Sciences.

Dr. Miyazaki has been honored with the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Award (2000) and the Japan Society of Physiological Anthropology Award (2006). He has published extensively in English and Japanese, with several works translated into Korean.