小型林業是國際森林研究組織聯盟(IUFRO)小型林業小組討論的產物，于2002年作為小型森林經濟、管理和政策而成立。其目的是提供一個國際論壇，發表關于小規模林業的純和應用研究的高質量、同行評議的論文。該雜志提供實證、理論、模型和方法論文。主題的范圍從小型林業在農村發展中的作用，到金融模型和決策支助系統，到木材收割和加工等等。其結果是徹底審查了農場、家庭、非工業和社區林業的社會、經濟和技術方面。對全球研究界特別感興趣的是，小規模林業對決策者和森林管理人員也很有用。

Emerging from discussions within the Small-scale Forestry group of The International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO), Small-scale Forestry was founded in 2002 as Small-scale Forest Economics, Management and Policy. Its aim is to provide an international forum for publishing high quality, peer-reviewed papers on pure and applied research into small-scale forestry.The journal presents empirical, theoretical, modeling, and methodological papers. The range of topics extends from the role of small-scale forestry in rural development, to financial modeling and decision support systems, to wood harvesting and processing and beyond. The result is a thorough examination of the social, economic and technical dimensions of farm, family, non-industrial and community forestry.Of particular interest to the global research community, Small-scale Forestry is also useful to both policy makers and forest managers.