A novel environmental protective 
urea-
formaldehyde resin and a preparation method belong to the field of 
wood processing adhesives. The 
urea-
formaldehyde resin is formed by the reaction of 
urea, 
formaldehyde, 
aldehyde, one or more stabilizers and modifier according to the 
route of 
weak base-weak acid-
weak base. The method firstly controls the F / U feed ratio, the pH value and the temperature during the reaction process to reduce the content of free formaldehyde in the resin; then the 
aldehyde is introduced to allow the resin to generate the stable 
alkyl ether (-(CH2)n-O-(CH2)n-) structure, thus reducing the content of 
methylene-
ether bond (-CH2-O-CH2-) in the resin structure, simultaneously reducing the using amount of the formaldehyde and further greatly reducing the release amount of the formaldehyde during the using process of a plate from the two aspects; in addition, the introduction of a 
long chain and polyaldehyde can ensure the resin to have great 
bonding strength and 
water resistance. The urea-formaldehyde resin which is prepared by the invention has the advantages of low content of free formaldehyde, simple process, low cost, etc., the release amount of the formaldehyde of the plate which is prepared by using the 
adhesive achieves the E0 level standard, and the high 
bonding strength can be maintained after being boiled in hot water.