No one knows the number of forest owners and forest holdings in Europe. It may be more than 20 million people, and in many countries there are strong structural barriers to forest management and investment in forests, such as the lack of an up-to-date cadastre or clear ownership documents.
The SMURF project defends the right of the forest owner to decide on the objectives and management systems to be applied in his or her own forests.
The SMURF project aims to create a European network of small forest holdings.
In order to encompass the diversity of forest associations and cooperatives and to use their experience
to support small forest holdings.
Forestry in Europe is striving for multifunctionality, integrating a variety of societal requirements, such as biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation and adaptation, or the production of clean water and cultural services such as recreation or human health. The SMURF – Forest Owners Project will help create value in the forest sector by ensuring sustainable and profitable management and business models, a standardized payment system for ecosystem services, and a support and training structure for small forest holdings. Socio-economic changes in forest ownership in Europe, combined with threats from climate change and other changes such as the process of urbanisation, agricultural intensification and others, are leading to land abandonment, fragmentation of forest holdings, forest decay, increased risk of fires, loss of forest habitats and a reduction in many ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, wood production, recreation and biodiversity conservation. Over the last 60 years, European agricultural holdings have undergone a profound transformation, with clear improvements in structures, new business models and others, clearly guided by the Common Agricultural Policy. European forestry holdings have not yet undergone a similar transformation and there are major differences between public and private forestry holdings. The situation of small forest holdings (SHFs) is particularly precarious, given the lack of forest registers in many European regions. The problem of farm fragmentation has been clearly addressed for decades to overcome the barriers to agricultural modernization, but the serious problem of forest fragmentation and unclear ownership has not been addressed in many countries and is a major obstacle to sustainable forest management. The Forest Owner Association was approved under the SMURF project together with 37 other associations and associations of forest owners from 16 European countries. The SMURF project provides us with a basis for comparing the situation of small forest holdings in Europe. SMURF_CF1_03 Association of small forest land's owners from Umbrías Spain
SMURF_CF1_06 Forest Owners Association: Mountain Boards of Asturias Spain
SMURF_CF1_08 Forest Owners Association VORTANA Romania
SMURF_CF1_09 Forest Owners Association - STEJARUL TOPOLOVENI Romania
SMURF_CF1_10 Romanian Forest Owners Association - Romania
SMURF_CF1_11 Association of Traditional and Environmental
Agricultural Producers Portugal
SMURF_CF1_12 Baixo Vouga Forestry Association Portugal
SMURF_CF1_13 AguiarFloresta Portugal
SMURF_CF1_14 Montnegre-Corredor Forest Owners Association Spain
SMURF_CF1_15 Laye-Lauzon Forest Management Association France
SMURF_CF1_19 Land Association Spring Valleys Italy
SMURF_CF1_22 National Center for Private Forest Ownership France
SMURF_CF1_23 Ocejon community of forest owners Spain
SMURF_CF1_25 Forestry Consortium "Gulf Corkwoods" Italy
SMURF_CF1_26 Ticino river forestry consortium Italy
SMURF_CF1_27 Forestry Consortium of Villa Basilica Italy
SMURF_CF1_28 De Bosgroepen Belgium
SMURF_CF1_30 Departmental federation of forestry groups of Hérault France
SMURF_CF1_31 Fenafloresta - National Federation of Forest Producers' Cooperatives, FCRL
Portugal
SMURF_CF1_33 The non-profit association for commercially sustainable multi-use of forests
Sweden
SMURF_CF1_35 FORESTIERS D'ALSACE France
SMURF_CF1_37 Holzcluster Steiermark GmbH Austria
SMURF_CF1_38 Croatian Union of Private Forest Owners Associations Croatia
SMURF_CF1_39 Irish Wood Producers Ireland
SMURF_CF1_40 Irish Woodland Owners Co-operative Society Ltd Ireland
SMURF_CF1_41 Rural Flanders Belgium
SMURF_CF1_42 Latvian Forest Owners' Association Latvia
SMURF_CF1_43 Model Forest Istria Croatia
SMURF_CF1_45 Pozemkové komposésorátu a Urbariátu Šalková Slovakia
SMURF_CF1_46 Association of private forest owners Lithuania
SMURF_CF1_47 NTF- Rural Landowners of Wallonia Belgium
SMURF_CF1_48 Royal Forestry Society of Belgium Belgium
SMURF_CF1_50 Forest Association Styria Austria
SMURF_CF1_51 Association of Owners of Community and Private Forests of the Banská
Bystrica Regi