Tiges et chavées - Sustainable management of private forests

Promoting the sustainable management of small, privately owned forests. This is the winning initiative of the 2019 Rural Inspiration Awards in the 'LEADER' category.

Full Project description EN PDF icon (405.17 KB)
Project summary: 

Most of the private forests in the area covered by the Local Action Group (LAG) ‘Tiges et Chavées’, are very small and fragmented. They contribute very little to the local economy as it is difficult for owners to perform effective forest management on small plots. To address this constraint, the LAG aims to create links between small forest owners, advisors and professionals in the sector.

Activities supported by this project include organising wood sales in groups, facilitating forestry work, organising training, developing local chains, creating partnerships and informing the public. In addition, the project promotes social carpentry to make it possible to carry out non-profit actions with a positive societal and environmental impact. The promoter of the project is the LAG ‘Tiges et Chavées’.

Project results: 

Mobilised 55 forest owners, 45 of them received a visit to assess the short-term needs on their plot.

Supported establishing 27 service agreements between owners and forestry experts, to organise the marking of trees for harvest, and established a common sales catalogue for 2 650 m3 of local woodland.

Supported the sale of 25 lots of 2 270 m3 of firewood, softwood and hardwood lumber for a total of 76 000 EUR.

In autumn 2018, the project organised a collective sanitary action to help small properties to remove wood attacked by bark beetles (Ips typographus).

Trained four forest guides to welcome visitors to the territory (a further training session is foreseen in 2019).