Small4Good: Sustainable multifunctional management by small forest owners in support of bioeconomy, biodiversity and climate

Project Information

Small4Good

Grant agreement ID: 101135517

DOI

10.3030/101135517

EC signature date 17 November 2023

Start date 1 January 2024

End date 31 December 2027

Funded under

• Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment

Total cost

€ 5 999 830,00

EU contribution

€ 5 999 830,00

Coordinated by

NIBIO - NORSK INSTITUTT FOR BIOOKONOMI
Norway

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Small4Good (Small4Good: Sustainable multifunctional management by small forest owners in support of bioeconomy, biodiversity and climate)

Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2025-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The strategic objective of Small4Good is to enable and activate small-forest owners to safeguard biodiversity and enhance the provision of ecosystem services from Europe's forests through multifunctional and locally adapted management models that are financially supported by PES and implemented with support by of digital- and AI-based solutions.
Small4Good will develop multifunctional management and business models for owners of small forest financially enabled by schemes for PES with focus on biodiversity and carbon farming. The management models are supported by digital and AI solutions to improve the capacity and engagement of small-forests owners. To ensure the long-term impact the models must be aligned with the motivations of the individual owners and the local ecosystem and socioeconomic conditions. Hence, Small4Good focuses on understanding the motivations of small-forest owners and pursues the development of
business and management models through a multi-actor living lab approach in four regions across Europe. This follows a co-creation approach that promotes rapid acceptability, prototyping, and implementation to outline realistic locally adapted pathways towards multifunctionality that are aligned with the ambitions outlined in the EU Forest Strategy. The lessons learned will be used to enable small-forest owners across Europe to enter the pathway towards sustainable and multifunctional management as a basis for a fair and inclusive transition towards the bioeconomy.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The Small4Good project employs four Living Labs (LLs) in Nordic (Norway), Eastern (Romania), Central (Germany/Switzerland), and Southern (Spain) Europe. These LLs serve as open innovation ecosystems, integrating research and innovation processes in representative environments. Each LL collaborates closely across the project’s five research work packages (WPs) to ensure comprehensive stakeholder engagement and address innovation adoption barriers.

WP1 established and runs the LLs, organizing workshops, demonstrations, and excursions to engage stakeholders, ensuring broad support for multifunctional management approaches. These LLs will act as good practice examples central to the dissemination strategy aimed at forest owner organizations across Europe.

WP2 focuses on understanding motivations and barriers for multifunctional management by small-forest owners. By analysing and clustering forest owner types, WP2 identifies starting points for integrating ecological needs and forest owners' capabilities into business and management models. PES schemes and carbon farming are central to realizing multifunctional management on a large scale, and WP2 investigates forest owners' preferences for these schemes' design properties.

WP3 aims to identify business models for small-scale forest properties owned by traditional and non-traditional forest owners. The models ensure owners maintain or improve financial returns while providing products for a forest-based bio-economy and contributing to carbon storage and biodiversity protection. WP3 will compare current business models across the LLs, identifying leverage points for innovative management supported by suitable institutional arrangements. Promising business models will be developed and discussed with local actors in the LLs, then refined into actual business models for specific properties.

WP4 translates the business models from WP3 into recommendations for silviculture and operation systems. These models aim to improve smallholders' forest quality for ecosystem services, support the EU Forest Strategy for 2030, and adapt management practices to climate change. Operational systems focus on efficient low-volume operations using small equipment and emerging technologies like AI, robotics, and sensing. Selected systems will be implemented and analysed in LLs for costs, environmental impacts, and ability to support the generation of ecosystem services, iteratively refined with input from WP3.

WP5 develops digital tools and applications to support multifunctional management and engage small-forest owners actively. This includes visualization tools for understanding management options, easy information collection using cell phones and drones, and an AI assistant for forest management. WP5 also aims to integrate open data into a dashboard for forest owners, providing comprehensive forest information. All digital solutions and AI systems will be developed and tested with forest owners in the LLs.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The Small4Good project aims to advance beyond the state of the art in six key areas related to the motivations and management practices of forest owners.

Key area 1. Motivations of Forest Owners; Current research highlights diverse motivations and socio-economic situations of European forest owners. Small4Good conducted a cross-European survey using an actor-centered approach to integrate individual motivations and abilities. This will lead to an agent-based model to analyze clusters and identify enablers for forest management.

Key area 2. Multifunctional Business Models for Small-Scale Forest Owners; Multifunctional forest management needs significant investment, which can be difficult for small-scale owners due to high costs. Small4Good is analyzing current business models and creating innovative ones by considering social networks and institutional settings to align with the EU Forest Strategy.

Key area 3. Multifunctional Management for Small-Forest Owners; Traditional forest management prioritizes timber production, with multifunctionality as a secondary goal. Small4Good aims to enhance small-forest owners' understanding of how biodiversity and ecosystem services (BES) respond to different silvicultural systems, motivating them to adopt multifunctional forest management approaches.

Key area 4. Develops PES Schemes Adapted for Small-Forest Owners; Current PES schemes often don't match the motivations of small-forest owners. Small4Good is exploring PES scheme characteristics in Europe, investigating through surveys and agent-based modeling.

Key area 5. Focuses on Small-Scale Forest Management Tools and Operations; Mechanized forest operations have increased productivity but often ignore small-scale forest owners' needs. Small4Good is exploring small-scale, low-impact equipment like mini forestry crawlers to meet these needs. The project will prototype a (semi-)automatized mini crawler to boost efficiency and safety.

Key area 6. Focuses on AI and Digital Solutions for Small-Forest Owners; Digital tools and AI have mainly focused on timber production, engaging small-forest owners minimally. Small4Good is creating digital twins of forests and improving data access via the S4G forest explorer, also examining AI use, especially Large Language Models (LLM), to aid small-forest owners in management.