Pathways for Mountainous Forest Quality Improvement and Carbon Sink Enhancement in Zhejiang Province

Subtropical mountainous forests constitute a core component of China's forest resources.Enhancing their forest quality and carbon sink ability is a key measure to achieve the 'dual carbon’ goals of China.As a typical distribution area of subtropical mountainous forests,Zhejiang Province currently faces the challenge of coordinated improvement of forest quality and carbon sink capacity.Based on the 2014—2019 annual monitoring data on forest resources and ecological conditions,this study analyzes the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of regional forest resources,identifies the difficulties in the coordinated growth of mountainous forest quality improvement and carbon sink,and proposes corresponding development measures.The main problems existing in the management of subtropical mountain forests in Zhejiang Province are as follows:①relatively low standing volume per unit area and insufficient forest productivity;②high costs of tending operations and lagging stand structure optimization;③prominent contradictions in the synergy between ecology and economy in mountainous areas;④high difficulty in pest and disease control and high risk of carbon pool loss;⑤limited potential for carbon sink enhancement.Considering the climatic and geomorphological characteristics of subtropical mountainous areas,a dual-optimization-oriented development path for forest quality-carbon sink is proposed,i.e.taking the tending of young and middle-aged forests and the cultivation of precious tree species and large-diameter timber forests as the core to improve forest quality;expanding the ecological and economic space of forests through large-scale development of woody oil forests and distinctive bamboo forests;taking precision control and digital forest protection as key measures to prevent and control pine wilt disease and consolidate the foundation of forest health;and enhancing carbon sink capacity by constructing an interconnected ecological corridor network integrating mountains,rivers,and coasts.These results can provide practical references for the sustainable management of forest resources and the precise improvement of carbon sink function in subtropical mountainous areas of China.