1
Suggested titles and senior or correspondence authors for each paper
2
3
4
5
6
Major forest types and the evolution of sustainable forestry in China
Limin Dai, Professor at the Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of
Sciences.
7
8
9
10
An overview on recent research progress in forest eco-hydrology in China
Shirong Liu, Professor at Chinese Academy of Forestry, President of Ecological
Society of China
11
12
13
14
China’s forest fires and fire management policy over the last two decades
Yu Chang, Professor at the Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of
Sciences.
15
16
17
18
Forest ecosystem services and eco-compensation mechanisms in China
Hongbing Deng, Professor at State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology,
Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences
19
20
21
22
23
Current status and problems in certification of sustainable forest management in
China
Jingzhu Zhao, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Xiamen 361021, China
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
Future impacts of climate change on forest fire danger in northeastern China
Shu Lifu, State Forestry Administration’s Key Open Laboratory of Forest Protection
Research Institute of Forest Ecology, Environment and Protection, CAF Beijing
100091
37
38
A forest resource database and its application in forest management:
Constuction of a Decision Support System (DSS)
39
40
41
42
Qingli Wang, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang,
110016, China
Decreasing soil water content contributes to accumulation of soil carbon in
successional forests in Southern China
Guoyi Zhou, Professor at South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China
Forest management in Northeast China: History, problems and prospects
Dapao Yu, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang,
110016, China
Characteristics of gas release during combustion of herbaceous undergrowth
1
2
3
fuel in a broad-leaved Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis) forest in Xiaoxing’anling
Hu Hai-qing, School of Forestry, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040,
China
4
Highlands of the contributing articles
5
6
7
8
Collectively, these articles cover broad and concurrent issues in forest research and management,
including background information about China’s forest and forest management, forest hydrology,
forest fire, forest survey, forest certification program, forest ecosystem services, forest related
carbon and climate change. Abstracts for each paper can be found in the following section.
9
Highlands of the contributing authors
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
The author list includes some of the best known scientists working in forestry in
China. For example, Dr. Shirong Liu is the current president of Ecological Society of
China, Dr. Guoyi Zhou has published a paper in Science in 2007, Dr. Jingzhu Zhao is
the director of Institute of Urban Environment, CAS, Dr. Qingli Wang is the Chief of
Yunan Section of Chinese Academy of Science, Dr. Lifu Shu is the chief scientist of
National Forest Fire Control Program.
1
2
Major forest types and the evolution of sustainable forestry
3
in China
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
Dai Limin1, Dongkai Su1,2, Li Zhou1*, Dapao Yu1, Bernard J. Lewis1,
Zhenggang Liu1, 2 , Yang Wang1, 2 , Lin Qi1, 2 and Guowei Li1, 2
1
Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 72 Wenhua Road,
Shenyang 110016, China
2
Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, China
* Corresponding author: Email: zhouli930@iae.ac.cn
Abstract
China’s forests consist of a wide range of types with distinctive distributional
patterns shaped by complex topography and multiple climate regimes. How to
manage this wide array of forest resources has challenged forest managers and
policy-makers since the founding of the country. From the 1950s to the late 1990s,
forest management guidelines and policies in China focused on timber production.
Although forests have provided great quantities of wood and a wide range of other
products and services to the Chinese populace over that period, excessive exploitation
of China's forest resources has contributed to environmental problems and calamities
such as floods, soil erosion, sand storms, and desertification. Facing such serious
ecological problems at the start of the 21st century, the Chinese government decided
to ‘strengthen eco-construction and maintain eco-safety’ in an effort to achieve
sustainable forest management (SFM). This provides both an opportunity and a
challenge for the development of forestry in China. In this paper, we introduce
China’s major forest types and discuss current status of forest resources and the
historical development of forest management in China, including actions taken thus
far toward achieving SMF. Major problems are identified and a strategy for SFM
implementation in China is presented.
Key words: China forestry; China forest types; eco-construction; ecosystem criteria
and indicators; sustainable forest management; Six Key Forestry Programs
1
An overview on recent research progress in forest
2
eco-hydrology in China
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
1
Shirong Liu, 1Lei Zhang, 1Pengsen Sun,2Yong Lin, 1En Liu, 3Xiaohua Wei and
4
Jingxin Wang
1
Forest Ecology, Environment and Protection, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing
100091, PR. China
2
National Marine Environment Monitoring Center, State Oceanic Administration,
Dalian, 116023. China
3
Watershed Research Chair, Department of Earth and Environmental Science,
University of British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Kelowna, British Columbia,
Canada V1V 1V7
4
Division of Forestry and Natural Resources, West Virginia University, Morgantown,
WV 26506
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
Abstract
Forest hydrology has long been recognized in China as an important interdisciplinary
research field between forestry and hydrology. Most recently in China, forest
hydrology has shifted to forest eco-hydrology and is increasingly addressed in a broad
global change context. This paper presents an overview of recent research progress
and future perspectives in forest eco-hydrology in China. The historical retrospect
indicates that over time the priority and focus of forest hydrology research in China
has been changing, greatly influenced by China’s national forestry policy and
environmental problems during the different historical periods. Early scientific studies
on forest hydrology were carried out in major types of forests at a catchment or small
watershed scale, focusing on basic individual hydrological processes in terms of
rainfall interception, streamflow, evapotransporation, and impacts of forest logging.
Since the late 1990s, China’s forest management has shifted from timber production
to ecological restoration and improvement, resulting in massive afforestation and
reforestation through the implementation of a series of national forestry programs
across the country. At the same time, environmental changes are increasingly affecting
China’s forest structure and functions such as climate change, land use, and land cover
change. The current forest hydrological research in China focuses on hydrological
consequences of massive reforestation and afforestation, land use change, and
hydrological responses to climate change at a large watershed or forest landscape
level. Recent research progress in forest eco-hydrology across China is mainly
reflected in large scale watershed hydrology, resforestation hydrology, and climate
change eco-hydrology. The focus is on the coupling interaction of hydrological and
ecological processes in a global change context at landscape and regional scales by
using holistic approaches such as remote sensing, geo-spatial techniques, isotope
tracing, and hydrological modeling. Future forest eco-hydrological research in China
should focus on a long-term interdisciplinary commitment to monitor hydrological
processes and forest vegetation dynamics using geo-spatial techniques, developing
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
process-based eco-hydrological models, and integrating traditional methods and
holistic approaches. The goal is to quantify large-scale watershed eco-hydrological
processes and to understand forest-water relationships in a changing environment
across a broad physiographic gradient at multiple scales.
Key words: climate change; eco-hydrology; forestation hydrology; landscape
disturbance; large scale forest hydrology
China’s forest fires and fire management policy over the last
10
two decades
11
12
Yu Chang, Hong S. He, Yuanman Hu, Yuting Feng and Yuehui Li
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, P. R.
China
Abstract
Understanding the spatial and temporal characteristics of forest fires is crucial for
forest fire management decisions such as choosing priority areas for fuel treatment
and identifying specific regions needing enhanced forest fire monitoring. We collected
yearly forest fire statistical data for each province of China from 1987 to 2007. We
carried out statistical analysis of these data in four aspects: burned area and burned
forest area, number of forest fires, losses due to forest fires, and fire suppression input.
Our results showed that (1) the total burned area from 1987 to 2007 was 8.36  106 ha,
with about 52.43% in Inner-Mongolia Autonomous Region and 25.87% in
Heilongjiang Province. Large variations of burned area occurred among different
years with 33.29% in 1987, 13.88% in 1996, and 13.44% in 2003 owing to dry
weather conditions in these years. The total burned forest area from 1987 to 2007 was
2.21  106 ha, with about 36.92% in Heilongjiang Province and 29.28% in
Inner-Mongolia Autonomous Region. The burned forest area also had large variations
among different years, with most forests burned in 1987, 2003, and 2006, accounting
for 14.9%, 20.42% and 18.49% respectively; (2) 170,541 forest fires occurred in
China from 1987 to 2007, with 13.8% occurring in Hunan Province, 11.21% in
Zhejiang Province, 9.6% in Sichuan Province, 9.16% in Guizhou Province, and 9.15%
in Yunnan Province. Among these, small forest fires (burned area <10 ha) accounted
for 55.43%; large fires (>100 ha) accounted for only 0.41%. Forest fires decreased
gradually from 1987 and reached the lowest level in 1997 before increasing gradually;
(3) forest fires damaged 21.79  106 m3 timber volume and 2607.05  106 young trees
from 1987 to 2007. People injured or killed totaled 4878, and 1321.82 million RMB
were lost by forest fires during 1987 to 2007; (4) China has been following a strict
forest fire monitoring and fire suppression policy, especially since 1987, with much
input of yearly capital and man power. The number of fire-fighting people days
increased from 1.15  106 in 1987 to 1.19  106 in 2007. A total of 5.03 RMB was
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
invested for forest fire fighting in 1989, and it was increased to 108.91 million in 2007.
The highest amount was spent in 2003, when nearly 400 million RMB was used to
suppress forest fires. Note that fire suppression can decrease forest fire occurrence
only in the short term (<10 yr). Over the long term, forest fire suppression cannot
achieve its primary goal to eliminate forest fires and reduce forest fire risk. Our results
suggest that forest fuel treatment should be incorporated into China’s forest fire
management planning, and the priority forest fuel treatment area should be focused on
Heilongjiang Province and Inner-Mongolia Autonomous Region.
9
10
Forest ecosystem services and eco-compensation
11
mechanisms in China
12
13
14
15
Hongbing Deng, Tianxing Liu and Xin Liu
State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for
Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
Abstract
Forest is the main terrestrial ecosystem that provides multiple ecosystem services.
Due to the externalities and public-good properties of these ecosystem services, their
importance is sometimes neglected. The research and evaluation of ecosystem
services have long been hot topics in ecology. Since the 1980s, Chinese ecologists
have carried out relative research to evaluate forest ecosystem services at national and
regional levels. Some results showed that the total value of forest ecosystem services
including timber products, nontimber products, C sequestration, water storage, soil
erosion control, recreation and ecotourism was about 1.4 trillion RMB Yuan per year.
Forest eco-compensation is a transfer mechanism that internalizes externalities of
forest ecosystem services by compensating individuals or companies for the losses or
costs of providing forest ecosystem services. China’s current forest eco-compensation
system is mainly focused on noncommercial forests. The main measures consist of the
charge on behaviors such as destructions of noncommercial forests, the compensation
on individual or local conservational behaviors, and the investment on the
conservation of noncommercial forests and regions of great ecological importance.
The Compensation Fund System for Forest Ecological Benefits was first listed in
Forest Law of the Peoples Republic of China in 1998 and is used for the forestation,
tending, protection, and management of noncommercial forests. In 2004, the Central
Financial Compensation Fund, which is the important source of Compensation Fund
for Forest Ecological Benefits, was formally established to provide the financial
source of forest management; in essence, it formally recognizes the forest ecological
benefits and strives to fundamentally solve the incentive and mechanism problems in
forestry development. To perfect the forest eco-compensation system, it is crucial to
design the compensation criterion of noncommercial forest considering both
theoretical and practical concerns based on a quantitative evaluation of ecosystem
services. Although some preliminary effects have been achieved, some deficiencies
1
2
and problems in the practices of forest eco-compensation in China persist, and some
pertinent countermeasures mentioned in this paper should be adopted.
3
4
5
6
Key words: ecosystem services; China; Compensation Fund System for Forest
Ecological Benefits; noncommercial forests
7
Decreasing soil water content contributes to accumulation of
8
soil carbon in successional forests in Southern China
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
Yuhui Huang1,2 , Guoyi Zhou1*,. Xuli Tang1 and Deqiang Zhang1
1
South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650,
China; 2Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049,
China)
*Corresponding author: phone +8620-37252708; fax +8620-37252708; email:
gyzhou@scib.ac.cn
Mailing address: Xingke road 723, Tianhe District, Guangzhou 510650, China
Abstract
Soil carbon accumulations have been observed recently in successional forests,
especially in old-growth forest; however, the mechanism of soil carbon increase is far
from being understood. We hypothesized that raising soil temperature and decreasing
soil water content potentially contribute to soil carbon accumulations by influencing
decomposition processes. To test this hypothesis, temporal trends and variations of air
temperature, soil temperature, soil water contents (SWC), and their influences on soil
carbon accumulations were analyzed in three successional forests in Dinghushan
Biosphere Reserve (DBR). The results showed that soil temperature is highly
correlated with air temperature at DBR. Annual mean ambient air temperature
increased by 1.03 °C from 1954 to 2007. Both air temperature and soil temperature
are strongly influenced by vegetation cover. Early successional forest showed a
greater variety and sensitivity in air temperature as well as in soil temperature than
moderate and advanced successional forests. Soil water content increased with
progressive succession processes; however, for forests at all successional stages, SWC
dropped sharply in recent decades. From 1983 to 2004, SWC decreased by 46.0% in
the advanced successional forest (the monsoon evergreen broadleaf forest), 50.0% and
48.3% in the moderate and early successional forests, respectively. The decrease in
temperature sensitivity and increase in SWC along progressive successional stages,
compared with early-successional forest, suggests that advanced-successional forest
has a stronger self-adjustment on soil temperature and soil moisture. Both soil
temperature and SWC are driving factors for soil respiration rates in DBR forests;
however, decreasing SWC is the leading factor contributing to soil carbon
accumulation prior to increasing soil temperature.
1
Current status and problems in certification of sustainable
2
forest management in China
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Jingzhu Zhao1*, Dongming Xie1 and Gang Wu2
1
Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021,
China
2
State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for
Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
*Corresponding author: Email: jzhao@rcees.ac.cn
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
Abstract
Forest certification began in the early 1990s and generally benefits sustainable forest
management. Forest certification in China began later but has developed rapidly in
recent years. By March 2009, 16 forest management enterprises had certified more
than one million hectares of forests under the system. Compared to other major
countries and international communities, the development of China’s forest
certification still falls short. We identified the main influencing factors of forest
certification in China as: (1) Management, namely institutional factors. China’s forest
management is based on national plans, so forest management lacks flexibility. (2)
Public awareness. The importance and value of forest certification to environmental
protection is not effectively communicated to the public by managers and staff, and
the consumers do not choose the certified forest products due to weak awareness of
environmental protection. (3) Certification cost. Because forest management has not
fully entered the market in China, the forest management bodies have low economic
benefit, and it is difficult for the forest management bodies to accept the relatively
high cost of forest certification. Although these factors restrict the development of
China’s forest certification, it has great potential. According to our preliminary
calculation, if forest certification was adopted by 50% of China’s timber forests, the
economic scale of forest certification would be about 4.2–545.0 million RMB Yuan,
and the forest management bodies would also realize considerable economic benefit
through improving the quality of forest products. To improvement forest management
and development of international trade of forest products, forest certification in China
must improve. China’s forest certification should be developed by improving the
management system, constructing and perfecting market access mechanisms for forest
products certificated, and increasing public awareness of environmental protection
and forest certification.
Key words: certification cost; China; forest certification; forest management; forest
products
Dr. Jingzhu Zhao is the director of the Institute of Urban Environment of Chinese
Academy of Sciences. He studies complex systems and regional sustainable
development and is currently serving an the Editorial Broad of The International
Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology, and several Chinese academic
1
2
journals such as Acta Ecologica Sinica.
3
Characteristics of gas release during combustion of
4
herbaceous undergrowth fuel in a broad-leaved Korean pine
5
(Pinus koraiensis) forest in Xiaoxing’anling
6
7
8
9
Hu Hai-qing, Wang Wei-ye, Sun Long* and Liu Fei
School of Forestry, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
Abstract
We studied the broad-leaved Korean pine forest of Xiaoxing’anling in Heilongjiang
Province in both wild and laboratory control conditions. We measured and computed
emission factors and emission quantity of CO2, CO, CxHy, NO, and SO2 in 42
herbaceous species during different burning stages. From the perspective of release
speed, we analyzed the burning characteristics of different herbage fuels based on
main content and found the emission factors of herbage for CO2, CO, CxHy, NO, and
SO2 were 2.9301, 0.4599, 0.0139, 0.0087, and 0.0227, respectively. The emission
quantity of herbage for CO2, CO, CxHy, NO, and SO2 were 1113.46, 174.73, 5.26,
3.29 and 8.60 mg·g−1, respectively. The emission factor and emission quantity for CO2
were greater than for the other four gases. The cluster analysis results showed that the
same family of herbs had similar emission characteristics.
Key words: combustibles; emission factor; herb; Xiaoxing’ anling
23
24
Future impacts of climate change on forest fire danger in
25
northeastern China
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
Tian Xiao-rui1, Shu Lifu1, Zhao Fengjun1, Wang Ming-yu1 and Douglas J. McRae2
1
State Forestry Administration’s Key Open Laboratory of Forest Protection Research
Institute of Forest Ecology, Environment and Protection, CAF Beijing 100091
2
Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, 1219 Queen St. E. Sault Ste.
Marie, Ontario P6A 2E5
Abstract
Climate warming will have a rapid and far-reaching impact on fire activities in the
boreal forests of China. We used regional climate model outputs and the Canadian
Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI) System to analyze future changes in fire danger and
the fire season under SRES A2 and B2 scenarios to guide future fire management
planning. China's regional climate (1961~1990) was used as our validation data, and
the period 1991–2100 was modeled under SRES A2 and B2 scenarios using weather
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
simulated by the regional climate model system (PRECIS), driven by results from
AGCM-HadAM3H global pattern as initial and lateral boundary conditions.
Meteorological data and fire danger were interpolated to 1 by 1-km scale by using
ANUSPLIN software. Results show that the PRECIS model could closely simulate
temperature and precipitation for the study area during the validation period. Spatial
distribution of the temperature and precipitation were consistent with observed values.
The average FWI value for future spring fire seasons under Scenarios A2 and B2
showed an increase over most of the region. By 2080 under Scenario A2, FWI values
were shown to have increased more than 1.5-fold, mainly along the east-central region.
Under Scenario B2, the increased FWI values had a similar spatial distribution for
different time periods, increasing most in the southeast. The FWI values increase
more for Scenario B2 than for Scenario A2, particularly during the 2050s and 2080s.
Average future FWI values will increase under both scenarios for October. Significant
increases in the very high and extreme fire danger categories will occur in the east;
however, Scenario B2 had more days of higher fire danger than Scenario A2,
especially in the southeast.
Key words: climate change, fire season, forest fire danger, northeastern China
19
Forest management in Northeast China: History, problems
20
and prospects
21
22
23
24
25
Dapao Yu1, Li Zhou*, Hong Ding and Limin Dai
Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 72 Wenhua Road,
Shenhe District, Shenyang 110016, China
*Corresponding author: E-mail zhouli930@iae.ac.cn
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
Abstract
Studies of the history and current status of forest resources in Northeast China have
become important in discussions of sustainable forest management in the region. Prior
to 1998, excessive logging and neglected cultivation led to a series of problems that
left exploitable forest reserves in the region almost exhausted. A substantial decrease
in the area of natural forests was accompanied by severe disruption of stand structure
and serious degradation of overall forest quality and function. In 1998, China shifted
its primary focus of forest management from wood production to ecological
sustainability, adopting ecological restoration and protection as key foci of
management. In the process, China launched the Natural Forest Conversion Program
and implemented a new system of Classification-based Forest Management. Since
then, timber harvesting levels in Northeast China have decreased, and forest area and
stocking levels have slowly increased. At present, the large area of low quality
secondary forest lands (92% of the total forest area in Northeastern China), along with
the high levels of timber production (4.0×108 m3·a−1, 20% of total wood production
output in China during 2006~2010), present researchers and government agencies in
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
China with major challenges in deciding on management models and strategies that
will best protect, restore, and manage such a large area of secondary forest lands. This
paper synthesizes information from a number of sources on forest area, stand
characteristics and stocking levels, and forest policy changes in Northeastern China.
Following a brief historical overview of forest harvesting and ecological research in
Northeast China, the paper discusses the current state of forest resources and related
problems in forest management in the region, concluding with a proposed
management strategy for forest lands in the future.
Key words: forest resources; Northeastern China; potential trends; regional forest
management; stand structure
1
Dr. Dapao Yu is Associate Professor at the Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese
Academy of Sciences. Dr. Yu studies forest ecology and dynamic response to forest
disturbance and climate change. Email: yudp2003@iae.ac.cn
16
A forest resource database and its application in forest
17
management: Constuction of a Decision Support System
18
(DSS)
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
Qingli Wang1 , Xiaokui Xie1,2*, Limin Dai1, Guofan Shao3, Dongkai Su1, 2,
Zhenggang Liu1,2, Dapao Yu1 and Li Zhou1
1
Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016,
China
2
Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, China
3
Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University, West Lafayette,
IN 48906, USA
*Corresponding author: E-mail xiexiaokui@gmail.com
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
Abstract
Developing forest resource databases is an effective measure to improve the ability of
forestry innovation, to realize forest information sharing, and to develop sustainable
forestry management. We introduce and describe the two steps of forest resource
spatial database construction procedure: the forest database checking and correction
on the basis of knowledgebase and; the forest data conversion, sharing and
interoperation based on metadata. The database was then developed using Geographic
Information System (GIS) and consisted of forest inventory data at the levels of
forestry bureau and farm. Finally a forest Decision Support System (DSS) was
developed under the framework of the forest resource spatial database to provide
analytical and visual information from stand to landscape scale. The DSS functions
included forest database updating; forest growth simulation with a diameter transition
matrix model; and forest visualization based on terrain, coordinates, species
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
composition, tree DBH and height extracted from the spatial database. The DSS helps
convert the concept of China’s Natural Forest Conservation Program (NFCP) and
Returning Farmlands to Forests Program (RFFP) into forest management actions and
practice, realizing spatially explicit and temporally scheduled forest management.
Key words: Decision Support System (DSS); digital forestry; forest landscape
visualization; forest model; forest resource database; Geographic Information Systems
(GIS); knowledgebase; metadata; sustainable forest management
Dr. Qingli Wang is a professor at the Institute of Applied Ecology of Chinese
Academy of Sciences. Dr. Wang studies forest ecology and forest ecosystem
management. He is currently serving as Editorial Broad of Acta Ecology Sinica,
Chinese Journal of Ecology, Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology.