Nature plays a crucial role in our wellbeing. At the Eden Project we believe in the power of connecting people with each other and the natural world – the power of people collectively doing things to improve their lives and the lives of others around them. We make use of our Eden gardens and natural site, to support and treat people with a range of conditions from mental health to diabetes, through social prescribing.
In this session, we’ll explore how being in nature supports wellbeing, how social prescribing works and the benefits this brings to us as human beings. Learn why access to nature plays such an important role in our health and get ideas for how we can reconnect with the natural world around us – as individuals and communities.
Tom Oliver
Tom is a professor at the University of Reading, leading their Ecology and Evolution research group. He is a prominent systems thinker, advising both the UK government and the European Environment Agency. He has published more than eighty scientific papers in world-leading interdisciplinary journals and won two first-place prizes for essays communicating science to a broader audience. His writing has appeared in the Guardian, Independent and BBC Science Focus and he is author of the critically acclaimed book The Self Delusion: The Surprising Science of Our Connection to Each Other and the Natural World.
Dr Craig Bennett
Craig became Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts in April 2020, after ten years at Friends of the Earth, firstly as Director of Policy and Campaigns and then as CEO. Earlier in his career, Craig was Deputy Director at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), and Director of The Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change. Before that, he campaigned on corporate accountability, trade and wildlife issues at Friends of the Earth and on international wildlife crime at the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). He maintains his links with The University of Cambridge, as Policy Fellow at the Centre for Science and Policy (CsAP), and as a Senior Associate at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL).
Dr Amir Khan MBCHB (Hons) MRCGP DCH DRCOG PGCE DipDiab
Dr Amir Khan is a full time NHS GP working in inner city Bradford with a specialist interest in Type 2 Diabetes. He is a GP Trainer and Honorary Senior Lecturer for both Leeds Medical School and the University of Bradford. Amir’s passions outside of medicine include wildlife conservation and he is the first Ambassador for The National Wildlife Trusts and The Butterfly Conservation Society, working closely with them to ensure access to green spaces for inner city children and spreading the word on how being outside with nature is good for your health. He is a keen gardener, runner, fitness enthusiast, traveller and baker.
Dr Juliet Rose
Juliet began working for the Eden Project prior to its opening in 2001. She has a background in plant science, horticulture and the restoration of degraded land. Juliet currently manages a range of projects that connects communities and specific groups with nature to support learning, development and health. She also develops projects for the National Wildflower Centre and public engagement programmes for science and conservation initiatives overseas. This summer she spent a possibly unhealthy amount of time fussing over the cosmos in her small garden, but now feels the best way for anyone to face a pandemic is to nurture something in nature.
Emma Tolley
Emma is a Project Manager at the Eden Project. She has developed a programme of activities for under 5’s and their families to encourage outdoor play and nature connection. She works with Eden’s health and well-being programmes, supporting families to access opportunities at Eden. For 13 years she worked as a teacher in Primary and SEN schools. She is lucky enough to live in rural Cornwall where she can often be heard trying to persuade her two teenage sons to leave their screens and come for a walk, a swim or just to join her in the garden.
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