**1. Introduction**

Sustainable forest managemen<sup>t</sup> (SFM) is the most widely known type of managemen<sup>t</sup> at the global level. SFM is supported by policies and legislation in 97% of forest areas worldwide, and the highest values are found in South and East Asia and Central and South America, with between 93% and 100% [1]. Two of the main tools used to incentivize SFMs are stakeholder involvement and forest managemen<sup>t</sup> plans. However, the percentage of forest areas with forest managemen<sup>t</sup> plans varies by region, ranging from below 20% in South America and West and Central Africa to over 90% in Europe and Central America [1].

In this context, as a country participating in the workgroup on criteria and indicators for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests (Montreal Process), Chile has carried out a line of work aimed at developing support tools for the monitoring and assessment of the sustainability of forest managemen<sup>t</sup> in subnational projects, conducting studies in areas with humid climates and mild summers in the regions of Araucania, Los Lagos, and Biobio (see Figure 1).

**Figure 1.** Climate types in the regions in Chile; the Mediterranean climate area is framed.

However, this line of work has not been applied to sclerophyllous forests, which today are far from their climax [2] in spite of being located in Chile's central region—the most developed and densely populated in the country—on the slopes of the Coastal Range and Los Andes and representing one of the world's diversity hotspots [3]. These forests are the most vulnerable to climate change, which increases their risk of land degradation and desertification [4]. According to the latest climate model

simulations at the global level, global warming could increase dryland ecosystems from 11% to 23% of Earth's land surface by the end of the 21st century [4,5]. Although Chile has improved its subsidy requirements to favor SFLs, the lack of forest managemen<sup>t</sup> plans in this region means that SFLs do not receive subsidies that could encourage landowners [6].

To protect the remaining native vegetation and possibly reverse its declining trend, it is essential to implement programs for sustainable managemen<sup>t</sup> with the participation of the state and the private sector.

The VI Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins Region is part of the central zone of Chile and is characterized by having extensive areas of this forest type, and by the fact that a large proportion of the forests are in the hands of small forest landowners [7]. The total area of native forests is 485,790 ha—49,742 ha belong to 2957 SFLs, 413,126 ha to other private landowners, and 22,922 ha to protected areas, according to the 2013 Agroforestry Census developed by Instituto de Desarrollo Agropecuario de Chile. The application of the forest legislation may change these figures, but there is still no updated census.

The native forests in the possession of small forest landowners (SFL) are associated to other productive systems, such as agriculture and livestock farming, generating a wide variety of production units in the region. One characteristic of these subsystems is their low yields, mainly used for self-consumption, while any surplus goes for sale or exchange in order to ensure the subsistence and food security of the family group [8,9].

Forest areas are mainly managed by their owners using their empirical skills and knowledge of the resource. However, these interventions have not been su fficient to maintain the productivity of the native forest [2]. In addition, activities such as changes in land use for agricultural purposes, the utilization of the native forest as a source of refuge and food for cattle, and the constant extraction of forest products without any sustainable managemen<sup>t</sup> have contributed to reducing the tree cover and generated processes of forest fragmentation [8,9].

Elsewhere, the successful implementation of sustainable actions requires both the local communities and the decision-makers to understand the ecological, environmental, and cultural dynamics and the productive potential of the forests [10].

Small forest landowners are a group with diverse social, economic, and productive characteristics. The lack of information on this population sector hinders the processes of decision making and the orientation of promotional instruments and support programs [8]. Their correct characterization can contribute to the design of forestry, agricultural, and livestock policies that facilitate the transfer of technology [11] and the development, implementation, and monitoring of rural development projects [12].

Classification is an important tool for reducing heterogeneity and complexity in planning. According to Carmona and Nahuelhual (2009) [13], "A typology is a way of conceptualizing this reality and allows the resources to be directed more e ffectively and e fficiently. As a result, units of relation can be formed between decision-makers and their natural environment. It facilitates the spatial-temporal observation of the e ffects of their decisions at the level of the landscape and territory, and the results can be used to supplement future interventions according to the characteristics of the actors existing in it."

Previous work on the classification of rural family units and their associated property systems can be found in the literature. However, this classification has been done based on objective information and assessments, so the studies tend to be descriptive rather than explanatory or predictive [14,15].

Multivariate analysis methods o ffer objective classification techniques such as principal components analysis, multiple correspondence analysis and cluster analysis, which can group together the landowners with homogeneous characteristics in order to enable decisions to be made in a relatively similar way to allow the visualization, analysis, and understanding of the current productive systems so they can be given similar recommendations [12,13,16]. These techniques can be complemented with local expert knowledge [16] to identify sustainable lines of work as a basis for improving the focus of programs that promote scale economies and regional development [17].

The aim of this study is to characterize and typify small forest landowners in the Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins Region using objective information and the participation of the local population, in addition to multivariate statistical techniques to identify problems and deficiencies and propose future lines of work that lead to the sustainable managemen<sup>t</sup> of the territory and to rural development.

#### **2. Materials and Methods**
