Progress and Prospects of Forest Ecological Asset Research

Abstract

In recent years, in the face of the deterioration of the ecological environment, the research on forest ecological assets (FEA) has increasingly become a focal area of ecological research. To understand the current research progress and future prospects, this paper classifies and summarizes the main progress and achievements related to FEA in terms of theoretical studies, index systems, technical methods, and accounting models. In view of the existing research results, this paper proposes seven key scientific and technical problems and prospects to be solved, including the unification of the concept of ecological assets, the focus of future research on FEA, the construction of an evaluation index system according to local conditions, the integration of data assimilation methods that complement ground and remote sensing observations, the study of the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of forest ecological assets, the study of the net value of FEA, and the preservation and appreciation of FEA.

Eco-Asset Variations and Their Driving Factors in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, China, under the Context of Global Change

“…The ecological assets are defined as the value of tangible and invisible service functions provided by different ecosystem types in a specific region, which will differ with the change in ecosystem type, area, and quality in the region. Moreover, it will also show differences with the dynamic changes in spatial location and time [1]. Since the 20th century, the rapid growth of the global economy has increased the consumption of resources [2], and the imbalance between the demand for ecological assets for the purposes of regional economic development and ecological supply has become more evident [3].…”