Developing a quantitative index system for assessing sustainable forestry management in Heilongjiang Province, China: a case study

Abstract

In this study, we developed a comprehensive index system for forestry sustainability of Heilongjiang Province, which includes forest resources sustainability, sustainable economic development, sustainable social development and sustainable advancement in science and technology. Based on this system and the regional forest development, we further evaluated the sustainability of Heilongjiang Province for year 2008–2013. The results show that even though the regional forestry has been preliminarily on the track of sustainable development, it is fragile. Four indicators, e.g. soil and water retention rate, forest stand growth (per unit area), the proportion of national investment and the annual carbon sequestration have important impact on the sustainability, with a weight of 39.0 % in all the indicators. We also analyzed the factors hindering the sustainable development. It turns out that soil and water retention rate, forest stand growth (per unit area), the proportion of science and technology funds, per capita GDP and the proportion of the tertiary industry production are the main factors hindering regional sustainable development, which accounts for 50.94 % of the total obstacle degrees in the system. At last, we discussed how to promote the regional sustainable development from the perspectives of forest resources sustainability, economic development sustainability, society development sustainability and the sustainable advancement of science and technology.

Keywords

Regional forestry / Sustainable development / Index system / Empirical analysis

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