Managing small forest properties across Europe presents unique socio-economic and technical challenges that cannot be solved by simply downscaling industrial forestry. In its latest deliverable, the Small4Good project addresses this challenge by translating tailored business models into actionable, cost-effective silvicultural guidelines designed specifically for smallholders.
To ensure long-term relevance and trust, these business models were co-created directly with local forest owners during participatory workshops across our regional Living Labs. Grounded in the principle of “Lean Forestry” (doing the minimum necessary to meet silvicultural objectives while avoiding costly, redundant investments), the recommendations focus on maximizing multifunctional outputs such as timber, non-wood products, carbon storage, and biodiversity.
To quantitatively evaluate these approaches, regional forest simulators (SiTree in LL North, ForestFuture in LL East, ForClim in LL Central, and SIMANFOR in LL South) were applied using the owners’ actual forest inventories. These models projected how stands would react under the new management schemes compared to a standard business-as-usual baseline, assessing key trade-offs in carbon sequestration, deadwood dynamics, and timber provision, providing quantitative information to support the decision-making process.
Beyond offering tailored, stand-level guidance for forest owners, the comprehensive simulation datasets generated in this deliverable will directly feed into the upcoming Small4Good Digital Twin, providing the core data engine for interactive forest visualization and decision support.
