The Inaugural International Healthy Parks Healthy People Congress will explore how nature significantly contributes to our wellbeing and broader societal benefits. It is expected to attract over 1000 delegates from Australia and around the world. Participants will come from many different sectors including urban planning, community development, physical and mental health, tourism, education, recreation, ecology and park management (urban and protected area) industrial and technological. This diversity of perspectives will allow delegates to understand the benefits of nature through the eyes of many.
The Congress will be memorable in all senses – inspirational speakers, innovative techniques to involve delegates, creative workshop and discussion sessions, enjoyable networking opportunities and social activities. The focus is on nature so many sessions will be in outdoor settings. All in all an interactive event not to be missed!
Congress objectives.
The Congress aims to:
- Explore the many societal benefits that parks and nature provide.
- Build the relevance of parks and nature to society.
- Share knowledge, initiatives and innovations achieved by collaborating across sectors.
- Develop an international agenda that reunites nature with social health.
- Identify opportunities for better collaboration at global, international and local levels.
- Establish an information exchange network.
The Congress is a milestone as we begin to realign nature with broader social health objectives. By reinforcing the connections between the health of our community and the health of our parks, we can nurture a truly sustainable society, one which recognises its dependence upon and place within the natural environment. Striking a balance between developmental and human needs for environmental services requirements is a challenge that governments in a number of developing countries face. This congress provides a platform for raising awareness and calling for greater responsibility on all leaders to recognize this contribution and guard it with zeal.
Healthy Parks Healthy People
Parks Victoria’s Healthy Parks Healthy People philosophy seeks to reinforce and encourage the connection between a healthy environment and a healthy society. It has long been recognised that natural spaces provide many, often intangible, societal benefits. Healthy parks sustain healthy people. The approach is based on research conducted by Deakin University in 2002.
Apart from the obvious benefits of parks for physical activity, they are sanctuaries from urban stress, places for people to connect and havens for children to explore the wonders of the natural world. Parks help provide us with a sense of place, cultural identity and spiritual nourishment. We experience a greater sense of health and wellbeing, of connection and meaning when immersed in the living systems that sustain us. For the Indigenous people parks supply a profound spiritual link to ‘Country’.
As the custodian of four million hectares of parkland, Parks Victoria has a clear role to play connecting people with nature and the organisation is in the process of repositioning itself as a provider of broad societal benefits above and beyond those traditionally associated with parks.
To achieve this aim, there is a need to dissolve disciplinary barriers and realign common interests with other services, such as those within the health and community sectors. We require people from a whole host of sectors to imagine the potential of parks from the outside-in. The realms of park management and health have developed almost independently of one another, despite sharing issues of common concern. It is time we reunite them.
Registration for the Healthy Parks Healthy People Congress is now open - register online today or you may wish to download a brochure.
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