Coarse woody debris (CWD) is an important structural and functional unit of forest ecosystems. As a key link between vegetation carbon pool and soil carbon pool, it plays an important and unique role in the global forest ecosystem carbon cycle. More and more researchers begin to pay attention to the research related to CWD carbon storage. In this paper, the development history, research scope and basic characteristics of CWD carbon storage research at home and abroad are systematically described, and the research progress of CWD volume measurement, CWD carbon concentration estimation and other related methods of carbon measurement are summarized. It is found that the research on CWD carbon storage by domestic and foreign researchers is still in its infancy stage, mainly focusing on the discussion of the distribution characteristics of forest CWD carbon storage in different tree species, different forest ages, different degradation levels, different altitudes, and different existing forms. Less attention is paid to the mechanism of CWD carbon pool on soil carbon pool and vegetation carbon pool, as well as the response and feedback mechanism to future climate change. The CWD carbon measurement method is relatively simple, and the traditional biomass-carbon concentration method is commonly used, while there are few studies using machine learning algorithms to estimate CWD carbon storage. In addition, compared with foreign research, domestic research is mainly limited to a small scale. Accordingly, the future development direction of CWD carbon storage research is proposed as follows:(1) Expanding the research scale and establishing a long-term observation system of CWD carbon storage; (2) Further research on the response mechanism of CWD carbon storage in different forest ecosystems to climate change; (3) Exploring more diversified CWD carbon storage measurement methods; and (4) Further discussion of the influence and mechanism of CWD carbon storage on soil carbon storage and vegetation carbon storage.