Collaboration Nature For Health and De Eijk Group
On 26 November 2025, Nature For Health and De Eijk Groep signed a cooperation agreement. With this step, we reinforce our joint commitment to creating a living environment in which nature and health actively strengthen one another.
The agreement was signed by Erik Punt, Managing Director of De Eijk Group, and Rob Wolters, Executive at Nature For Health.
The collaboration is taking concrete shape right away:
- We are deepening our partnership at the intersection of green spaces, health, and the living environment.
- Jasperina Venema, already part of the NFH team, will now also be connected to NFH from within De Eijk Group.
- Shiva Leeman is joining the NFH team, also from De Eijk Group.
Together, we will focus on:
- greening the grounds of mental healthcare institutions, residential care parks for people with disabilities, and elderly care organisations, using landscape characteristics and the “Positive Health” web as a compass;
- providing greening impulses to neighbourhoods and districts, with attention to daily well-being, social interaction, and community cohesion.
This collaboration feels like a natural fit. De Eijk Group previously acquired Van Helvoirt Groenprojecten in Berkel-Enschot, the place where Nature For Health was founded over 13 years ago, then still as the Nature-Assisted Health Foundation. Co-founders were Bert van Helvoirt, then entrepreneur and director of Van Helvoirt Groenprojecten, and Patrik Grahn, professor at the Swedish Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). Since then, Berkel-Enschot has also been the home base of NFH.
Since 2013, NFH has operated as a non-profit organisation, connecting science, practice, and policy on nature and health, both nationally and internationally. De Eijk Group brings extensive experience in the green sector and strong implementation capacity. Together, we bring vision and execution closer together.
What unites us is a shared belief: A healthy natural environment is the foundation for health and well-being — and for a healthy society. We are not separate from nature; we are part of it.
We look forward to the movement this collaboration will continue to create.
In the group photo, from left to right: Shiva Leeman, Jasperina Venema, Rob Wolters, Bert van Helvoirt, and Erik Punt.