The 1st European Conference on Small Forest Holdings was mainly organized by the Cesefor Foundation and the University of Florence on behalf of the SMURF Consortium. Co-organized by the Food and Agriculture Ogranization (FAO) and European Forest Institute (EFI). Funded b 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).
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