Research Progress and Prospects of Forest Management Science in China

Forest management science is the leading discipline of forestry, which plays an important role in the construction of forestry in China. It is a discipline about the basic theory, techniques and arts of how to organize silvicultural and management practices. As a discipline, forest management was introduced from Japan to China in the early 20th century. It has been developed as a discipline group composed of forest management, forest measurement, remote sensing (RS) and "3S" techniques, and the application of information management and system science. The present situation and trend of forest management discipline were summarized to provide references for the development of the discipline in the paper. Literature analysis was used to review the research progress of forest managers in China over the past 60 years from six aspects. They included forest management theory and technology modes, monitoring and management of forest resources survey, forest statistics and stand growth model, forest harvest optimization decisions, forestry RS and information technology applications. Technical systems of the mutli-functional management for plantations and the structure-based forest management were developed. Within the framework of sustainable forest management, theory and practice of close-to-nature forest management and multi-functional forest management are still under testing. Forest management plays an important role in the establishment and refinement of national forest inventory system. Modern statistical method ology was widely applied in forest and growth yield modelling, such as compatible tree biomass equations. Climate-sensitive forest growth models and management planning models with the inclusion of carbon storage were also developed for adaptive forest management to future climate change. There was rapid progress in RS application. Forest parameter retrieving focused on LiDAR and multi-mode RS data. Unmanned aerial vehicle began to be used in forest inventory. The application and service platform based on high-resolution RS owned by China was formed, which enhanced its wide utilization in forestry. A number of forest resource management systems were developed, and a platform of comprehensive forest maps was finished which covering RS images, geographic information, sub-compartment and forested land features. Despite the significant progress mentioned above, the overall level is following the international work, and there are still some knowledge gaps in forest management science, which are the lack of forest management theory and practice with Chinese characteristics, basic forest management issues, timely forest monitoring system, and insufficient forest management planning tools, etc. The multiple functions of forest and its realization are a severe challenge for forest management research but a rare opportunity for forest management development. In order to meet the requirements of modern forestry development, it is necessary to give full play to the advantages of interdisciplinary comprehensive research and industry-university-research combination, and to carry out theoretical research, applied basic research and technological research in the field of forest management. © 2020, Editorial Department of Scientia Silvae Sinicae. All right reserved.