Abstract:Ecological forest engineering in coastal areas plays a major role in ecological construction in China. It has been the focus of disaster prevention, mitigation systems construction, and the scientific development of a marine economy and foreign trade in coastal areas. Therefore, it is of great importance to explore low-input-high-yield effective models of current forest engineering projects in coastal areas. This paper applies the Super-efficiency Data Envelopment Analysis (SDEA) model and uses 4 input indicators and 3 output indicators of the coastal ecological forestry engineering projects. The four input indicators include: employee structure, germplasm and germchit techniques, the ecological forest area with a 25-year stand age, and the coastal shoal reclamation area in the last 25 years. The three output indicators are animal species; impact of the natural environment composed of three influential indicators including typhoons, drought and seawater-invasion; economic output from the ecological forest engineering which includes agroforestry processing service output and per capita income of the related personnel. Finally, the coastal ecological forestry engineering projects include the shelterbelt engineering in coastal plain areas and the non-shelterbelt engineering in hilly region projects. These indicators were chosen due to the key technology input of their comprehensive efficiency and characteristic ability to evaluate the relative effectiveness of 15 ecological forest engineering projects. The ecological forest has a stand age of 25-years and is located in the coastal areas of Yuhuan, Taizhou, Zhejiang Province. The results of the evaluation for 1984-2008 indicate that, as of 2008, the comprehensive efficiencies of 15 ecological forest engineering projects show an overall upward trend with periodic variations, and a higher input-output efficiency of forestry. The concrete characteristics of the 15 ecological forest engineering projects were also noted: scientific planning and management of ecological forest network, stable ecological forest network area and forest volume, higher input-output efficiency of forestry, the significant reduction in the impact of typhoons, drought, seawater-invasion and other natural disasters on the ecological forest engineering, significant increase in the economic output from the ecological forest engineering and related personnel′s per capita income. Among the 15 ecological forest engineering projects, the key technology input of seven engineering projects achieved relatively effective comprehensive benefits. The comprehensive benefits were specifically shown in the following characteristics: high success rate of the domestication in anti-wind, drought tolerant, saline tolerant and waterlogging tolerant seedlings of bushes and trees; high biodiversity; effective measures by the government guidance; high diversification of products; rational industrial structure; and strong agriculture and forestry information services capabilities. The remaining eight ecological forest engineering projects were relatively ineffective. These projects were influenced by a sharp reduction of the employees in the recent 15 years, change in the local government guidance regarding the industrial pattern, the loose management over ecological forest engineering and the reduction of ecological forest volume. This study is based on the long-term research of management science, operational research, economics and technology. The study also reveals that ecological forest construction projects in the eastern coastal region can produce significant comprehensive benefits from the perspective of modern management. The results could provide, the scientific basis for policy-making in sustainable development, the promotion of the high efficiency digital ecological forest management, the effective promotion of ecological landscape planning, and the further study of ecosystem and ecosystem services value in coastal areas in China. In addition, it proves that the advantages of the SDEA model at the management level can effectively make up for the shortcomings of the parameter models and the ecological footprint model for the ecological forestry project management. This is helpful to broaden the research of forest management.