The development of smart forestry and grassland has placed higher demands on the representation and interaction of spatial information in management and field operations.As typical extended reality technologies,virtual reality(VR)and augmented reality(AR)have been gradually introduced into the field of forestry and grassland informatization.However,studies assessing differences in the suitability of these technologies under different geographical,ecological,and user conditions remain insufficient.Based on four dimensions—geographical and climatic conditions,ecological complexity,informatization infrastructure level,and user technical capability—the application environment of forestry and grassland informatization is divided into four typical scenarios.Focusing on three core business areas—resource management decision-making,on-site operation assistance,as well as education,training,and science popularization—this paper analyzes the application pathways and functional priorities of VR and AR.VR is more suitable for closed simulation tasks,while AR excels in overlaying real-world scene information.The two technologies are complementary in practical applications and show substantial potential for synergistic application in linking forestry and grassland planning with implementation.There is a mutually constraining coupling relationship among hardware investment,data-processing capability,and user technical capabilities.This structural contradiction is particularly prominent in grassroots management and constrains the large-scale implementation of VR and AR.In the future,tiered and scenario-specific implementation pathways should be established in light of regional conditions,so as to gradually strengthen the supporting role of VR and AR technologies in the informatization system of forestry and grassland.