The forum served as a platform for knowledge exchange between mature and emerging Model Forests, with a strong emphasis on inclusive governance, biodiversity restoration, and climate resilience. Representing SMURF, Pablo Sabín, CEO of CESEFOR, took the floor during one of the plenary sessions to present joint initiatives and shared objectives in two key areas: promoting forest certification and strengthening forest owner cooperation. His intervention underlined how SMURF is helping to bridge local forest management with European and global strategies, particularly through aggregation models that give small forest owners greater access to certification schemes and sustainable practices.

Participation in the IMFN Global Forum marks a pivotal moment for SMURF’s funded Model Forests, as they transition from local implementation to active contributors in the international forestry arena. This engagement demonstrates how Cascade Funding is not only enabling pilot activities on the ground, but also enhancing the visibility and influence of European forest stakeholders in shaping global approaches to sustainable forestry. The connections made in Canada are expected to fuel long-term partnerships and collaborative actions across continents, reinforcing the core values of SMURF: cooperation, innovation, and sustainability in forest landscape restoration.

La entrada SMURF at the International Model Forest Network Global Forum 2025 in Canada se publicó primero en Smurf project.

The conference marked a milestone in building stronger collaboration across Europe’s forestry community. Key discussions focused on:

– Supporting small-scale forest owners and associations

– Enhancing the profitability of fragmented forest holdings

– Strengthening local value chains for forest products and ecosystem services

– Promoting Sustainable Forest Management across diverse regions

Key themes explored during the Conference included the current state of small forest holdings in Europe, legal and financial support mechanisms, forest owner engagement, forest-based value chains, and ecosystem service markets. These topics were addressed through in-depth discussions held across nine sessions, which also examined major challenges such as forest land abandonment, low profitability and fragmentation. Particular attention was given to the role of forest owners’ organisations in strengthening local value chains and advancing Sustainable Forest Management across the EU. 

We are confident that this Conference was an important step in building stronger cooperation within Europe’s forestry community and showed the key role small forest owners play in creating a sustainable and inclusive future for European forests. The conference made clear: tailored, sustainable, and economically viable solutions are urgently needed to empower small forest owners and implement the EU Forest Strategy on the ground. The SMURF project will keep working to support this goal.

We are pleased to share with you a compilation of the materials and insights generated over these insightful three days in Rome. We invite you to explore the visual materials, speaker presentations, and video recordings, all of which are available on the conference website:

• Presentations of the panelists 
• Videos of the sessions 
• DAY 1 
• DAY 2 
• DAY 3
• Pictures

La entrada Looking Back: A Recap of the Conference se publicó primero en Smurf project.

The 1st European Conference on Small Forest Holdings will be held from 20 to 22 May 2025 in Rome (FAO Headquarters) in a hybrid format, in person and online.

Mainly organized by the Cesefor Foundation and co-organized by the University of Florence on behalf of the SMURF Consortium. Co-organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and European Forest Institute (EFI). Funded by the European Commission and supported by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests (MASAF) and the Spanish Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographical Challenge (MITECO).

This 3-day event is a unique opportunity to engage with private, public and community forest owners, forest owners’ associations and cooperatives, national and regional forest authorities, forest enterprises, professionals and researchers, NGOs and all the stakeholders dealing with Small Forest Holdings (SFH) in Europe.

Practitioners, researchers, and policy makers, together we will explore the needs, risks and opportunities of Small-Scale Forestry in the EU, promoting Sustainable Forest Management and local value chains based on forest products and services coming from European SFH.

The Conference highlights will be:

• Launch a community of practice on European Small Forest Holdings.
• State of the art of the EU SFH, their legal framework and the support systems (national and regional) to promote multifunctional forestry.
• Review of the challenges and opportunities, as well as the recent initiatives to engage forest owners, to finance their forest activities, to avoid land abandonment and to overcome forest fragmentation.

This event is cost-free and will be held in English.

More information will be soon available at this website.

La entrada Save the date! 1st European Conference on Small Forest Holdings se publicó primero en Smurf project.