Guangyu Wang, PhD
Dr. Guangyu Wang is an Associate Dean and Associate Professor of the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia, and Director of the UBC’s Multidisciplinary Institute of Natural Therapy (MINT), and Director National Park Research Centre. He has been working intensively in national parks, recreation management, and ecotourism development in the USA, Canada, and China. He brings extensive experience in protected areas research and project leadership while successfully managing $4 million in research projects over the last ten years. He has completed several research projects on forest therapy and its contribution to both social and environmental wellness. Currently, his MINT team is mainly focused on the effectiveness of forest soundscape, lightscape, and viewscape on human health and wellbeing. He works very closely with Forest Therapy Hub, ANFT, Korea Forest Welfare Institute, China Forest Therapy Committee, BC Royal Columbia Hospital, and the UBC School of Medicine.
He is the author of numerous books, chapters, technical reports, and scientific papers, including around 100 peer-reviewed international journals. He serves as an Associate Editor of Journals of Forestry Research, Frontier of Ecology and Evolution, Forests, and many others, and Director of the Asia Pacific Forestry Education Coordination Mechanism.
Keywords: Nature and forest therapy, forests and human health, national parks, nature-based tourism, recreation, visitor perception, community participatory
Email: guangyu.wang@ubc.ca