At Brackenhurst Retreat and Conference Centre we are passionate about our environment. Our campus is home to a 40 hectare indigenous forest. It wasn’t always this way in 2002 the Brackenhurst Forest was purely exotic trees and had very little biodiversity. After a great deal of work, our forest is now a wonder of Kenya with a thriving population of Colobus monkeys where once there were none. The number of bird species has increased from around 30 to over 180 and there are now 1,500 species of indigenous plants: trees, climbers, shrubs, flowers, herbs, ferns, orchids and fungi that have been planted by our staff and visitors.
How your visit helps us maintain and restore the forest
Every business on the Brackenhurst campus makes a financial contribution to the forest restoration. For every bed night stay at Brackenhurst, we allocate $2, Muna Tree Café donates 2% and this year Woodland Star International School’s contribution will exceed $12,000.
Build the forest into your next retreat or conference
Brackenhurst Retreat and Conference Centre provides a serene environment for corporate events or seminars and can cater for small and large events. We offer a choice of indoor and outdoor venues, with electrical outlets available at our outdoor venues ensuring you don’t lose access to technology while enjoying the environment.
Our partners at Brackenology can help you integrate the forest and gardens into your conference and retreat on a deeper level through the provision of workshops, guided walks and tree planting sessions.
Even if you don’t want to actively incorporate the forest into your conference or retreat, you can still enjoy many of the benefits of the forest just by choosing to host your conference or retreat at Brackenhurst.
The hidden benefits of the forest
An increasing number of studies show that forests have profound effects on our physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. Spending time in forests can:
- Improve sleep quality
- Lower blood pressure
- Decrease anxiety and depression
- Strengthen the immune system
- Lower cortisol levels
- Decrease the risk of cancer
- Increase our frequency of positive thoughts
- Boost empathy and emotional intelligence
- Improve memory function
- Dramatically increase creative reasoning skills
Who doesn’t want all of this as an added benefit for their next conference!
More information
If you are interested in joining our green community, or would like more information about our forest restoration efforts, you can get in touch with us at: bookings@brackenhurst.com | brackenology@brackenhurst.com
