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Prefacein Brussels. Particular thanks are due to Arne Been and Günter Siegel, and most recently to Melae Langbein.We gratefully acknowledge the help of Cecil Konijnendijk and Chris Baines, who facilitated and edited our efforts towards identifying future research needs. Jasper Schipperijn played an invaluable role in coordinating the final text and liaising with our publishers.This action not only encompassed many different countries it was also highly interdisciplinary. The leaders of the five working groups in E39 appear here as editors (Part I -

Volunteering in nature may be particularly effective for those who would like to be outdoors and have more contact with nature yet need specific encouragement and supported/led activities to participate.

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Certain observations arose from the implementation of multicentre research on 'ecotherapy'. Very diverse community groups of people with a range of disabilities, undertaking horticulture and nature conservation as a therapeutic and social enterprise, provided an unexpected conception. We coined the term embracement to capture the meaning of an activity we found in many 'bottom-up' examples of social inclusion. Self-organizing groups grow by the members' choosing to embrace a common identity, which included and integrated health, social and environmental dimensions. Embracement is self-directing, spontaneous and collective, with the potential group members being the driving force.