**4. Conclusions**

The main contribution of this article is to present for the first time a study on the characterization and the problems of small forest landowners of native sclerophyllous forests in the Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins Region.

Sclerophyllous forests are extremely sensitive to global warming, and the sclerophyllous forest in the hands of small forest landowners in this region of Chile is degraded in spite of its high ecological value. Due to the total lack of forest management, the yield obtained from the native forests is very low.

Although the characterization of small forest landowners reveals clear differences in terms of the surface area of their properties, the vast majority have a similar social profile, a low education level, and very advanced ages. This information is important for devising the training strategy to be used. The main product extracted is firewood for self-consumption for the household, leading to various degrees of intervention in the resource.

This classification allowed the design of proposals for activities for sustainable managemen<sup>t</sup> in the future, promoting regeneration either naturally or through planting, and fundamentally clearing and thinning activities, in order to reduce the continuous degradation of the native forest while considering the current legal aspects and the access to subsidies, all supported by specific forestry training plans for each typology.

It is therefore necessary to develop participative political processes that ensure rural development, the creation of associations of forest landowners, training, and the sustainable managemen<sup>t</sup> of these forest areas. This should include the measurement of criteria and indicators in order to monitor their ecological, economic and social development, and the incentivization of research into areas of sclerophyllous forest.

Finally, the methodology presented in this study, with its quantitative focus, can be replicated in sectors where there is no information available on small forest landowners, in order to generate areas for recommendation that consider the needs of the local population and ensure they are not merely passive actors in their own development processes.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, F.R.-G.; R.G.-S., and S.M.-F.; Data collection, F.R.-G. and R.G.-S. Formal analysis, F.R.-G. and S.M.-F.; Writing—Original draft, F.R.-G. and S.M.-F.; Writing—Review and editing, S.M.-F. and R.G.-S.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Acknowledgments:** We would like to thank the project "Program for training and technological transfer for a better application of Law 20.283, aimed at small landowners in the VI Region" financed by the Research Fund into the Native Forest at the National Forest Corporation and executed by the University of Chile.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
