Abstract: To exactly grasp the current situation of state-owned forest areas is the foundamental basis for promoting its management system reform.China's state-owned forest areas are characterized by so-called "small societies".Currently,internal and external factors function jointly to deeply change the functions,management system,operating system,economic structure,population structure and social organizational structure of state-owned forest areas.These changes symbolize the social transition of the state-owned forest areas.This systematic transition,characterized by its full scale,complex and long term features,influences not only the reform of forest areas themselves,but also the national ecological security and sustainable development as a whole.Therefore,more guidance and support should be given to the transition to guarantee its smoothness and systematic response.Most importantly,the former mode of replacing laws with administrative orders should be abandoned.Laws and regulations,especially those related to state-owned forest management,should be firmly applied and improved to guide and regulate the transition of state-owned forest areas.

Key words: state-owned forest areas, social transition, solution research