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Therme Group announces cultural collaboration to develop native forests at global wellbeing resorts

30 Apr 2021 Therme Group's cultural branch Therme Art has unveiled a global partnership with SUGi, a platform passionate about community-driven rewilding.

The venture will realise a programme of forest planting to create vital biodiversity-restoration hubs at the global wellbeing organisation’s projects all over the world.

By planting native trees and designing urban areas for the wellbeing of humans and nature alike, Therme wants to help realise a fundamental cultural shift.

The group is currently rolling out its global development strategy with projects under development in the United Kingdom, mainland Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.

Work is scheduled to begin on the £250m (€287.8m, US$347.9m) Therme Manchester later this year.

Of the partnership, Therme’s founder and CEO Dr Robert Hanea commented: “Moving towards the goal of a wellbeing city, Therme wants to become a seed of positive change through the reintegration of nature in urban space, providing our communities with environments conducive to mental and physical wellbeing.

“Regenerating biodiversity in cities through the restoration of ecosystems is the main challenge of urban development in the 21st-century. The health of our planet relies on efforts of afforestation and natural restoration exemplified by SUGi.”

Therme Art’s new partner SUGi was founded in 2019 by Elise Van Middelem, a creative strategist with a background in developing large-scale interdisciplinary art projects.

Driven by an innovative technology-led model that allows subscribers as well as local communities to participate in forest planting, the company is helping to realise new biodiverse forests all over the world.

Across its projects, SUGi pioneers the use of the Miyawaki Method, a dense form of planting which counters the broad trend towards monoculture and restores the biodiversity of native forests.

“With SUGi there is an unprecedented opportunity to transform unexpected urban areas into ideal habitats for birds to nest, for fruits to grow, for fresh air and for the magic of nature to thrive,” said Van Middelem.

“Restoring communities both ecologically and socially is a proposition we strongly believe in, and I’m delighted to now be working with Therme Group to achieve it.”