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

In order to guide and focus the research on small forest holdings, four Living Lab areas were chosen across the five project countries. These are located in Romania, Spain, Norway, and one across the border between Germany and Switzerland.

The first step to engage with small forest holders is to identify their relations to their forests. What motivates them for management, what hinders further engagement with their forests? These questions are investigated in WP2 of the project.

In WP3 the value ascribed to the forest by small forest holders is investigated, including non-monetary value of forests. Based on the results from WP2, business models are created with and for small forest holders to support their relation to their forests.

WP4 engages with the silvicultural aspects of multifunctional forest use in small forest holdings. Here questions of forest management are tackled, including technological support.

Beyond the material technological support provided in WP4, WP5 engages with digital support for small forest management. These can include ease-access AI tools to inform the forest owner on forest characteristics and property boundaries

The project is accompanied by a continuous social media presence to guarantee dissemination to the relevant stakeholder groups.

The project is managed at the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO).

In order to ensure ethically sound engagement with the subjects of research, an external ethic’s coordinator is associated with the project. The ethic’s coordinator accompanies and evaluates the research interactions with the small forest owners and consults the project members in their research design.