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

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. Snall4Good 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. Small4Good is aligned with the work programme by providing outcomes contributing to the policy goals of the European Green Deal including increasing the multifunctional role and resilience needs under climate change and contribution to halting and reversing biodiversity loss. This is achieved through better understanding of the motivations of small-forest owners, local small-scale management models based on implementation of carbon farming and PES.