Pilot Study And Application On The Indicators For Forest Health Assessment

As a new research area of forest ecology, forest health assessment has got much controversy. However, study on forest health assessment can provide scientific basis and guidelines for forest protection and sustainable forest management theoretically and practically. The indicators for forest health assessmnet, which are composed of productivity, organization, resistance and soil condition of the forest ecosystems was studied and applied to assess forest health in Jiangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou and Shaanxi areas in this study.The results by Delphi-AHP showed that the weights for every indicator were quite different in different experimental area due to their different characteristics. The forest health index (FHI) for every experimental area was calculated respectively by the use of different indicator weight systems. The areas of the average FHIs from high to low were Guizhou, Yunnan, Shaanxi, and Jiangxi. Then the FHIs of all the 31 quadrats in the four areas were calculated by use of an average indicator weight system. Result of variance analysis indicated that the two groups of FHIs had no significant difference. The results showed that most of the forests were in good health or sub-health. Significant FHI differences between Guizhou area and Jiangxi area existed, but no significant FHI differences between any other two areas. The average FHI of natural forest was higher than the one of plantation. And the average FHI of deciduous-conifer mixed forest was higher than the one of deciduous forest and lower than the one of coniferous forest.Some suggestions for improving the forest health in the four local areas have been brought forward respectively according to the forest condition in each area. For example, pest prevention will be the key issues in JiangXi area, a balance between local tourism and forest conservation should be settled In YunNan area, effective community forest management could be established in GuiZhou area, and some strategies should be take to keep balance between local economic development and wild life protection in Shaanxi area, and so on.