Abstract:We estimated total forest biomass and the biomass of forest stands in Zhejiang Province between 1976 and 2004 using data from continuous forest resource inventory and conversion models that account for the relationship between volume and biomass using the Variable Biomass Expansion Factor (VBEF) method. Total-forest biomass included forest stands, bamboo stands, cash forests, open forest, shrub forest and trees on non-forest land.Between 1976 and 2004, Zhejiang Province total-forest biomass increased from 1.00828×108 Mg to 2.44426×108 Mg, whereas forest-stand biomass rose from 0.5712×108 Mg to 1.51128×108 Mg. That is, total-forest biomass and forest-stand and increased on average by 5.1% and 9.1% annually respectively. Between 1999 and 2004, biomass growth accelerated, reaching an average of 8.6 % and 10.1 % for total-forest and forest-stand biomass respectively. The total forest area of the Province increased on average by 1.0% annually between 1976 and 2004, resulting in an average forest biomass of 16.50 Mg·hm-2 in 1976 and 36.59 Mg·hm-2 in 2004. However, the quality of the Zhejiang Province forests may be considered relatively poor as evidenced by the 2004 forest-stand biomass per unit of area (38.40 Mg·hm-2), which was still much lower than the average across China (77.40 Mg·hm-2). This study showed that data from continuous forest resource inventory and individual-tree based models may be used to estimate forest biomass and its change at regional levels. However, further studies are needed to either develop new biomass models for various species or improve existing models by implementing consistent standards