Measurements for Forest Ecological Benefit in China

Abstract: According to the analysis of the multiple ecological benefits of forest, the indexes of dependent variables of the measurement on the forest ecological benefits were defined. This index system includes water-reserving benefit, soil and water conservation benefit, wind and sand suppression benefit, microclimate improvement benefit, carbon dioxide assimilation benefit, atmosphere purification benefit, flood and drought mitigation benefit, tourism resource benefit and wild creature protection benefit. Meanwhile, main factors from the numerous factors that affect dependent variables were chosen as independent variables. The independent variables were divided into area independent variables (longitude, latitude, altitude, annual precipitation, mean annual wind speed, annual accumulated temperature ≥10) and stand independent variables (forest accumulation and forest coverage rate). At last, we established the multivariate linear model of forest ecological benefit measurement. With this multivariate linear model the forest ecological benefit of China was calculated. The forest ecological benefit of China is 7238.16 hundred million RMB per year. And this benefit equals 23.07 % of the gross domestic product of China