Raphaèle Van der Perre
Certified: 2025
Country: Belgium
Nature (Re)Connection in: English
When I go into the forest, “I simply am.” I feel exactly in my place. That soothing feeling—and stimulating at the same time—is incomparable. We know it, and science confirms it: for millennia, this is where we have all belonged. As Louis Janmot said: nature is like the air we breathe—it is a need.
The forest has always been my guiding thread. After my studies as a bioengineer specializing in water and forests, I worked at ONF Guadeloupe, then at the Water and Forest Laboratory at UCL, and at SRFB. Today I am a science teacher, and I take my secondary school students into the forest. With every outing, I realize how important—and urgent—it is to reconnect them with the living world.
I wish this connection for all of you. That is why I completed the Nature (Re)Connection Guide training with UNature.
A few questions for Raphaèle…
As a child, nature for you was…?
The forest. A world inhabited by fairies, trolls, elves, the great stag, the old wise tree, sarsaparilla, and magical mushrooms.
Which sense connects you instantly to nature?
Smell. Breathing in the scent of pine forests in summer, Douglas fir needles, the river, or even shaggy ink caps fills me completely.
Which object from nature do you keep at home?
If I had to choose just one, I would keep my cone of Pinus sabiniana, for its beauty, its scent, and its story.