Forestry observation is an important direction of the development of space-borne LiDAR. So far, foreign space laser remote sensing payloads have been developed. The experimental LiDAR carried by Chinese ZY-3(02) satellite is a big breakthrough in earth observation of space-borne LiDAR in China, and the oncoming multi-beam LiDAR of Chinese CE-1 satellite will be applied to forestry remote sensing. The vertical structure of forest was acquired by ICESAT-1/GLAS waveform, while point cloud of forest was obtained by ICESAT-2/ATLAS photons. The space-borne LiDAR forestry remote sensing gradually entered the practical stage, beyond the experimental stage. During this period, technical system, configuration, and techniques had improved. In this paper, the applications and technique developments of main forestry remote sensing space-borne LiDAR in use were analyzed, and the characteristics and development trend were summarized, based on the study of detection principle, technical system, observation condition, etc. Space-borne forestry observation LiDAR payloads should be designed according to scientific mission, application requirements and technical characteristics, using the advantages of space-borne LiDAR, and based on which the development trend and research focus of space-borne forestry observation technology and application were prospected.