Introduction

Abstract

With the exception of ‘pristine’ lands, from which the human presence has allegedly been absent, human beings, acting individually or socially, have utilised the forests of China and modified their natural state. Preferential selection of some species over others in the course of hunting and gathering have altered the composition of the forest. Fires set in the course of the hunt or in clearing land have changed the path of vegetational succession. The conversion of woodlands to agricultural use have transformed the landscape dramatically. Yet throughout history, people have also protected and grown trees and forests. Forested land was fought over as strategic terrain. Trees were worshipped as spirits. They have been grown as a source of income, and protected or planted to resolve problems of drought, desertification, and flooding. This book seeks to understand why people have protected, improved, and also destroyed forests, at the same time, in the same country, over a period of more than three centuries.