Forest Multi-function Monitoring And Service Evaluation At Forest Management Unit Level

Due to the rapid development of economy and society, and the continuous progress of ecological civilization, our society requires a growing variety of demands from forest. People will get more and more attention to forest multi-function management, which has been increasingly becoming a hot spot in forestry research. However, the forest multi-function monitoring and evaluation system, which is an important mean in forest management, is still limitedin practice. It is difficult to meet the needs of forest multi-function management and strategic decision making, and largely restricts further improvement of the forest multi-function management. Thus it is necessary to establish an adaptive monitoring and evaluation system with forest multi-function operating characteristics. In this research, we studied many aspects of the monitoring and evaluation system of forest multi-functional in the experimental center of tropical forestry, Chinese academy of forestry(referred to as the tropic forestry experiment center), such as designing sampling system and plots layout method, selecting investigation factors and survey instrument, collecting and processing data, and then evaluated forest economic service function, ecological service function and social service function based on the basic investigation data for forest multi-function. This study provided a theoretical basis and practical guidance to carry out multi-function monitoring and evaluation activities for forest manager, and also offered references and experience to develop wider range of forest multi-function comprehensive monitoring and assessment.In the matter of forest multi-function monitoring, monitoring indicators of different forest functions were put into different sampling levels, which are relatively independent and interrelated, through the combination of systematic sampling and typical sampling,the forest multi-function monitoring and survey sampling system was established based on same grid sampling framework.Based on the traditional forest resources monitoring and combination with the theories of close-to-nature forest management and forest ecology, then the star circle cluster sample was used to set two collecting data systems with conventional sample plots and intensive sample plots, and also set monitoring content and survey factors for a variety of forest functions status monitoring and data acquisition, The conventional sample plots, which were arranged on the systematic sampling point, were mainly used for traditional indexes observation of forest structure and growth dynamic.Four levels were set for the investigation factors from high to low, including stand general situation, single tree information, shrub and sapling information, and herb information. The intensive sample plots, which were arranged on the typical systematic sampling point, were part of conventional sample plots and mainly used for the newly added indexes observation of forest leaf area index, temperature and humidity, negative air ions concentration, carbon dioxide concentration, litter reserves and status, soil physical and chemical properties, and other factors that associated with the forest ecology and environment, except for monitoring content of conventional sample plots. The investigation factors of intensive sample plots were set as canopy layer, air layer, litter layer, soil layer from top to bottom, and some new equipment such as the fisheye lens, hand-hold agricultural meteorological monitoring instrument, positive and negative air ions tester, carbon dioxide detection instrument, and other instruments that mainly used for obtaining new indexes data of the intensive sample plots.In the matter of forest multi-function service evaluation, based on the actual measured data, forest economic function, forest ecosystem service function, and forest social function were evaluated, and then a comprehensive evaluation were used for the forest multi-function. The economic service function was mainly evaluated from two aspects with wood production and other forest products function. Firstly, the annual value of forest economic function in tropic forestry experiment center was around 70,236.7 thousand Yuan, of which, the wood and other forest products production value was around 51,469.2 thousand Yuan and 18,767.5 thousand Yuan, respectively. The average annual economic value per hectare of forest was around 3,810.90 Yuan. In various forest types, the economic function of economic forest was the highest, and shrub forest was the lowest. Secondly, the ecosystem service function was mainly evaluated from five aspects, including improvement of the air environment, carbon sequestration and oxygen release, water conservation, soil conservation, and biodiversity protection. The annual total value of forest ecosystem service function in tropic forestry experiment center was around 987,912.5 thousand Yuan, the average forest ecosystem service value per hectare is around 53,602.13 Yuan. In various ecological service functions, the value of water conservation was the highest, followed by the value of species conservation, the value of carbon sequestration and oxygen release, the value of improvement of air environment, and the value of soil conservation was the lowest. In different forest types, the ecological service function of the coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest was strongest, and the shrub forest was lowest. Thirdly, the social function was mainly evaluated from four aspects, including promoting employment, scientific research, leisure and recreation, and reducing the loss of natural disasters. The annual total value of forest social function in tropic forestry experiment center was around 433,778 thousand Yuan; the average value per hectare of forest in the social function was around 23,535.91 Yuan. In various social functions, the reducing value of natural disasters loss function was the highest, followed by the promoting employment function value, scientific research value, the leisure and recreation function value was the lowest. In different forest types, the social function of the economic forest was strongest, and the shrub forest was lowest. Finally, the comprehensive forest multi-functional evaluation was mainly evaluated from three aspects, including the total value of forest multi-function, the importance of forest function, and the forest multi-functional economic analysis. The annual total value of forest multi-function in tropic forestry experiment center was around 1,491,790.5 thousand Yuan; the average value per hectare of forest in the multi-function was around 80,941.52 Yuan. In the three aspects of forest multifunction evaluation, the ecosystem service function had the highest value,around 66.22% of the total value of multi-function, followed by the social function value, was around 29.08% of the total value of multi-function, the economic function value was lowest(4.70% of the total value of multi-function). The corresponding importance index of the economy, ecological service, society were 3.71, 2.11, 0.93, respectively. In different forest types, the economic forest had the biggest contribution to the whole national economy, and the shrub forest had the smallest contribution.Our research showed that the established forest multi-function monitoring and evaluation at the forest management unit level was doing well in economy, practice and operability. Through the monitoring and evaluation of the forest multi-function, the forest management units could be used to systematically and deeply understand the growth and development status, regeneration, succession laws, and the relationship with environment for multi-functional forest. Moreover, this study could master the various functions status of different forest types, their financial contribution to management units, and the whole contribution to development of the national economy, and thus reflect the differences of demands between management units and the national level in the forest management objective and forest type selection. Therefore, this research not only could provide data and theoretical support for the management units to make forest multi-function management and control measures, but also could offer guidelines and references for the country and government to develop forest management policy and ecological service purchase mechanism. All above had important significance to effectively elevate the forest multi-function management level, fully exploit the comprehensive functions and benefits of forest, finally promote the sustainable development of the ecological civilization and economic society.