A Geographic Information Systems approach for classifying and mapping forest management category in Baihe Forestry Bureau, Northeast China

This paper demonstrates a Geographic Information Systems （GIS） procedure of classifying and mapping forest management category in Baihe Forestry Burea, Jilin Province, China. Within the study area, Baihe Forestry Bureau land was classified into a two-hierarchy system. The top-level class included the non-forest and forest. Over 96% of land area is forest in the study area, which was further divided into key ecological service forest （KES）, general ecological service forest （GES）, and commodity forest （COM）. COM covered 45.0% of the total land area and was the major forest management type in Baihe Forest Bureau. KES and GES accounted for 21.2% and 29.9% of the total land area, respectively. The forest management zones designed with GIS in this study were then compared with the forest management zones established using the hand draw by the local agency. There were obvious differences between the two products. It suggested that the differences had some to do with the data sources, basic unit and mapping procedures. It also suggested that the GIS method was a useful tool in integrating forest inventory data and other data for classifying and mapping forest zones to meet the needs of the classified forest management system.

Benefit measurement of the soil and water conservation for ecological forestry engineering

Data were collected from Three-north Region, Middle and upper reaches region of Yangtze River and Coastal region. By analysis of factors influencing soil erosion, the longitude, latitude, annual precipitation, and the slope degree were selected as regional independent variables and canopy density and stock litter were selected as independent variables, and integral diffusing models were established for evaluation of the benefit of soil and water conservation of forest. By solving the parameters of models using the package of STATISTICA, the Power function between independent variables and dependent variables was set up. The soil conservation amount of forest and economic values were estimated using the contrast method for the ecological forestry engineering of the above three areas.

Research Review of Post-Evaluation for Comprehensive Benefits of Forestry Ecological Programs

The paper summarized the meaning of post-evaluation for comprehensive benefits of forestry ecological programs, discussed and reviewed its development process in terms of content, indicators and methodologies, and finally presented its development trend from the perspectives of theoretical research, methodological research and application research.

Community Forestry and Sustainable Development in Rural Area

After analysis on the current situation of international forestry, this paper proposes that integration, coordination and sustainable development will be the general developing trend of forest in China, and commercial forest, ecological forest and community forest should be organically combined with integrative development and sustainable development in rural areas. This paper focuses especially on clarifying the importance of community forest to the social development or rural areas, and emphasizes tha...

Mechanisms for Realizing the Economic Values of Ecosystem Services

The fact that ecosystem services have values that can be quantified has been widely accepted in recent years. Part of the economic values of ecosystem services have been realized partly by ecological compensation of fiscal transfer payments at different levels, trade and consumption of leisure tourism and ecological products, and carbon sequestration forest funds sponsored by non-governmental capital. However, it remains difficult to realize the economic value of ecosystem services as industrial products and support the coordinated and sustainable development of nature, economy and society. To reveal the role of ecological compensation, consumption of biological products, leisure tourism and ecosystem services trading in realizing the economic values of ecosystem services, we analyzed the composition, transfer and consumption pattern of ecosystem services. In order to provide theoretical and technological support for inter-regional ecological compensation, ecosystem service industry development and ecosystem services trade, the concept of ecosystem services credit and key problems with ecosystem services trading are proposed.

Variable retention harvesting in the Douglas-fir region

Variable retention harvesting evolved in the Douglas-fir region of the Pacific Northwest gradually in response to increasing dissatisfaction with the ecological consequences of clear-cutting,from the standpoint of wildlife habitat and other important forest functions.It is a harvesting technique that can provide for retention(continuity)of such structures as large and old live trees,snags,and logs.Variable retention is based on the natural model of the biological legacies that are typically left behind following natural disturbances,such as wildfire,wind,and flood.Variable retention is also an important technique for fulfilling the first silvicultural principle of ecological forestry,that of providing for continuity in structure,function,and composition between forest generations.The history and current application of variable retention approaches on forests in western Washington and Oregon states(USA),where many of the fundamental concepts were first developed and applied,is described in this article.