Abstract: Assessment and indicator system become the key issues in the research on ecosystem health in 21^st century. Assessing forest ecosystem health gradually attach much attention because it is an important component of terrestrial ecosystem. The definition,measurement,evaluation and its management had been discussed broadly,and some theories,assessing methods and frameworks had been proposed,which provides a new concept and a serial research approaches for dealing with the crisis of terrestrial ecosystems,even the environment problems in the world. Now,the common operational models for assessing forest ecosystem health do not exist owing to the manifold limitations. This paper discussed forest ecosystem health problem,and brought forward three preconditions for assessing forest ecosystem health:1) a clear conceptual framework;2) adequate data sets;3) proper research and analysis techniques. The issues of three preconditions were discussed,and the possible approaches for the assessing research on forest ecosystem health,e.g.,long term studies and environment monitoring,space for time substation studies,e.g.,history approaches,economics valuation and others were expariated.

Key words: Forest ecosystem, Forest ecosystem health, Health assessing, Approaches