As important milestones of the SMURF project so far, we can mention.- In July, 15 surveys were prepared for small forest holdings managing areasunder 500 ha. It was described what forests they manage, whether they haveeconomic activity every year, what is the stock per hectare and what is theintended use. It was important for the surveyed forest holdings to cover asmuch diversity as possible, such as different tree species, gender of therepresentative, managed area, etc. In order to achieve greater diversity of thesurveyed holdings, those that are not members of the Association were alsoallowed. Forests located in the Rhodope Mountains, Stara Planina and theTroyan Balkan were surveyed. When completing the surveys, all forestmanagers were given the opportunity to indicate the main risks and challengesfor their forests and how they see their development over the next 10 years.Attention was paid to the question: is there a practice in Bulgaria for forestowners to receive income from the provision of ecosystem services? Animportant aspect was also whether there is a practice in the country to insureforests.- At the end of July, active work was also carried out on the preparation of twovideos presenting the mission, goals and key activities of the Association. Theywere filmed in the area where the headquarters of the National Forest OwnersAssociation Forest Owner is located. The first video presented the privateforests in the area. The second presented their management.- 10 original photos belonging to the Association were also selected, whichrepresent the organization, its activities and views of the region. A briefdescription of their content was provided with them.- Work was also carried out on activity 3.2.3. - publication of news or a report inthe media at a national or regional level. On this occasion, together with theBulgarian Telegraph Agency, an article was prepared about the presentation ofthe Association at the "first European conference of small forest holdings" heldin Rome from 20 to 22 May 2025 and the common problems affecting all forestowners. The article itself can be found at the following link on the official BTAwebsite.
SMURF project website https://www.smurfproject.eu/.Funded by EU #smurfproject #SmallForestHoldings #forestry #forestowners #profitability #smallforestowners #foresteufuture #forestmanagement #sustainability #forestnews #cascadefunding #closetonaturesilviculture
