Abstract: The total area of the world's forest was in 1995 estimated to be 3454 million hectares of which 3% was made of plantations. Forest plantation is essential forest ecosystem with fundamental functions and roles in wood production, environmental protection and landscape design. It is the supplementary function of forest plantations in wood supply that the natural forests can more efficiently used for environmental protection, biodiversity conservation and recreation. The forest plantations can sustainably managed under the preconditions of a combination of correct species selection with silvicultural arts and forestry policy by which the combination is enhanced. Exotic tree species are components of forest genetic resources and play an increasingly important role in the development of commercial plantation forests, in particular, in the tropics and subtropics. The sustainable management of forest plantations is driven by dynamic tree breeding and tree improvement and creative forest management. To practice the essence of sustainable forest management, the Chinese forestry is challenged by both technological and economic systems, however, the way by which the forest plantations can be managed towards sustainability is to reform the economic system of forestry and to follow the mechanism of market economy which has effectively been used in agriculture so that it is possible to establish forest plantation industry in China.

Key words: Planted forest, Exotic species, Sustainable forest management, Forest plantation industry