Sustainable Management models and valUe chains foR small Forests

The intensification of natural (extreme weather events and other climate change consequences, biological invasions) and anthropogenic (atmospheric pollution, climate change, change of land use such as the expansion of urban areas, loss of forest management practices, fragmentation of forest properties, etc.) environmental pressures still represent important threats to forests ecosystems; which have resulted in land and forest fragmentation (over 16 million owners in Europe), lack of forest sanitation, loss of forest habitat and reduction of the ecosystem services (including carbon sequestration, timber production, recreation, and biodiversity conservation)2, .

The SMURF project, in line with EU’s Forest Strategy, will help promoting sustainable forest management and conserving Europe's forests, by developing a set of solutions focussing on small forest properties: (1) new tailored organizational and business models, based on Closer to Nature Sylviculture practices (CNS), promoting new ecosystem services (carbon farming and biodiversity) and the valorisation of wood/non-wood forest products (2) training, digital tools and other support structures/instruments and (3) guidelines to support policy-makers establishing regional, national and European standardized policies and retribution systems by creating a harmonized European Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) system.

With a translational, multidisciplinary and multi-actor approach, thanks to its complementary and polyvalent consortium members composed of private, academia and public stakeholders, and taking into account sociocultural and geodemographic factors sometimes neglected, SMURF will provide sustainability solutions for the entire forest-based value chain.