Singapore National Parks visits a NatureFix Trail

As a common purpose to bring nature even closer to everyone, the NatureFix team and program associates enjoyed an afternoon with Singapore National Parks Board representatives to collectively explore how to create more immersive experiences in nature. This provided an opportunity to exchange the latest research and its associated benefits on health and wellbeing as well as exchanging case studies of best practice in accessing these benefits, without venturing too far from home.

Singapore’s “Our City in Nature” offers a source of inspiration and leadership with the goal to make every road in Singapore a Nature Way and very household will be within a 10-minute walk from a park by 2030. We especially valued the insights on contemplative landscapes urban design and the value of therapeutic gardens and nature play for young and old. Including the Singapore’s vision to deliver 30 therapeutic gardens to offer restorative spaces for people with conditions such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and dementia.

Cooper Park being the ideal setting to introduce the demonstrated benefits of how NatureFix can immediately transform green (and blue) spaces into wellness places. Suitable to any area that naturally invites you to take time to pause - whether it be a view, a cozy sensory garden, a well-loved nature walk or by a babbling brook – NatureFix untaps nature’s restorative and health-giving benefits.

Built into design, NatureFix’s nature wellness trails and zone areas invite individuals to experientially engage with elements of nature to:

·       Reduce their stress and improve their mental health, anxiety and self-esteem

·       Improve their physical health and immune system functioning

·       Increase their cognitive function and performance

·       Improve their social interactions and care for community, including a greater sense of connection and belonging with community and place

·       Enhance their environmental awareness and advocacy to increase in pro-environmental and conservation behaviours

So why not head down to Cooper Park in Bellevue Hill to try the health benefits for yourself?

Learn how you can now transform your own green (and blue) space into wellness place by using our self-install NatureFix Nature Wellness Trail or Zone program.

Thanking and acknowledging meeting attendees:

·        Michelle Rose, Environmental Education Officer, Woollahra Municipal Council

·        Dr Holly Parsons. Urban Bird Program Manager, BirdLife Australia

·        Jonathan Noyes Healthy Built Environments Program Manager, Population Health Promotion Northern Sydney Local Health District

Including visitors from Singapore National Parks Board

·        Tang Tuck Weng, Assistant CEO/Park Management and Lifestyle Cluster

·        Ms Kartini Omar, Group Director/Parks Development and Design Division

·        Ms Nanthini Elamgovan, Director/Parks Division and

·        Mr Khairullah Abdul Razak, Senior Landscape Architect/Design Division