Fengshui Forests Research Articles

Fengshui forests as a conservation paradigm of the golden larch in China

Potential suitable habitats for relict species are facing critical reductions due to intensified anthropogenic disturbances and climate change. These facts not only pose new challenges, but also call for a paradigm shift for the effective conservation of relict plant species. We investigated in situ population structures and regeneration status under varying management scenarios for Pseudolarix amabilis, a relict conifer endemic to China. We also re-evaluated the conservation status of P. amabilis using our latest in situ population census data. We found that the conservation status of P. amabilis is more pessimistic than expected. Hence, wild P. amabilis populations urgently need to be considered for conservation. More concretely, intensive and frequent anthropogenic disturbances reduce population recruitment, but a reduced population recruitment also occurs at places where human activities have been strictly prohibited. Comparing with other management scenarios, the populations in fengshui forests showed good regeneration, since the moderate anthropogenic disturbances in these forests. Therefore, fengshui forests can serve as a conservation paradigm of P. amabilis since they echo the optimum regime where anthropogenic disturbances occur.

Biblical Forests and Feng Shui Forests: Towards the Problem of Understanding the Religious Concept of “Spiritual Ecology”

Biblical Forests and Feng Shui Forests: Towards the Problem of Understanding the Religious Concept of “Spiritual Ecology”

"Domesticated Landscapes of Li Gonglin: A View from the Anthropocene," by De-nin Lee

Reviewed by: "Domesticated Landscapes of Li Gonglin: A View from the Anthropocene," by De-nin Lee Foong Ping De-nin Lee, "Domesticated Landscapes of Li Gonglin: A View from the Anthropocene," JSYS 45 (2015): 139–74. If the grand peaks, valleys, and waterfalls of paradigmatic Song dynasty landscapes entreat viewers to appreciate high-minded retreat alongside travelers and recluses, what constitutes their "domestication"? Paintings that show knowledge of terrain and technology, that picture efficient agriculture and engineered waterways. Taking up perspectives from eco-art history and criticism, Lee takes special notice of motifs like rice fields, mulberry groves, newly-planted trees, and fish-stocked ponds, urging us to examine them as signs of anthropogenic change. Li Gonglin 李公麟, an artist of great range and invention, is not often studied as a landscapist. Lee conceives of a unique picture in his oeuvre from an eco-critical perspective. "The Lodge of Establishing Virtue" is one of the two opening scenes in Li's portrait of his estate, Mountain Villa (Shanzhuang tu 山莊圖), which stands out from the following sections, and indeed from the Song visual record of works by named artists. The scene was conceptualized in a manner outside of the landscape painter's typical brushwork-orientated repertoire. Robert Harrist underlined Li's use of mapmaking and printmaking conventions when discussing Mountain Villa's transformation of wilderness into a garden-estate. Pan Anyi's study of Li's Buddhist beliefs considered the painting in relation to a paradise. But nature is not only a pure muse for eremites. Some images imply ecological ruptures and the material impact of meeting human needs. Lee calls attention to our assumptions about landscape images—long informed by art, historical, philosophical, and literary discourse—as fundamentally representing a harmonious relationship between humans and nature. Her stated aim is to inflect images of leisure, such as Li Gonglin's, with implied labor. Within the cultural constant of seeking revelations of heavenly approval or disapproval in nature, the symbolism of cosmic harmony in landscapes was particularly useful for imperial purposes. Those picturing advanced technology also rendered power and legitimacy visible, pointing to capable and benevolent rule. Liu Heping has demonstrated the implications of paintings of mills and hydrological engineering. Pang Huiping's study of snow scenes has shown how this subject's meanings needed redirection at court during an actual period of cold climate. Domesticated landscapes counter notions of the pristine wilderness and the ideals that it entails, seeing instead evidence of environmental change and the parties responsible for it. Water-powered [End Page 232] machines redirected natural watercourses; harvesting timber to build dams and dykes for flood prevention fed cycles of erosion. Thus images of land-ownership represent limitations upon the land's ability to generate wealth and impositions upon ecology. With this lens, Lee understands a picture of tree cultivation as a possible reference to windbreaking fengshui forests that prevented erosion and filtered water. From this perspective, various parts of the productive ecology of a working estate might delineate amongst cultivated, soon-to-be cultivated, and uncultivated landscapes, and between the symbolic and mundane features and purposes of Li's estate. Of course, no single lens precludes any other. In an unexpected cross-disciplinary, cross-temporal move, Lee finds purchase in Xie Lingyun's 謝靈運 poems, where the estate is a site of spatial operations and "habituated practices" that problematize conventional oppositions of rustic and urban. Li Gonglin offers "visual cognates" of Xie's panoptic gaze. Li Gonglin's painting is indeed self-reflexive and complex in its juxtaposition of multiple visual conventions. The image itself calls for a correspondingly intersectional interpretive strategy, as Lee's essay proposes. [End Page 233] Foong Ping Seattle Art Museum Copyright © 2021 Society for Song, Yuan, and Conquest Dynasties Studies

Village Fengshui Forests as Forms of Cultural and Ecological Heritage: Interpretations and Conservation Policy Implications from Southern China

Using field survey data gathered from seven villages in Youxi County in southern China and a list of famous and ancient trees and groves, this study explored the cultural roots and ecological interpretations of village fengshui forests. The results show as follows: the species of fengshui trees selected by Chinese rural villagers bear a symbolic meaning, including health, longevity, flourishing population, fortune, and wealth. Fengshui belief, clan system, village rules and regulations, fengshui worship tradition, and customs have all played important roles in villagers’ planting and conservation of fengshui forests. It is suggested that the government should recognize the cultural and ecological value of fengshui forests and integrate the local rules and village regulations into the current policy frameworks to improve fengshui (culturally preserved) forests management with favourable polices such as subsidies and conservation strategy. China’s fengshui forests suggest the cultural importance of ecosystem services from forests, and the role of culture in forest conservation.

Community-based forestry and the functions of institutions: a case study of Fung Shui forests in Hong Kong

Fung Shui forests, also called Fengshui forests, manifest community-based forestry and are forest patches cultivated by Chinese Hakka villages based on traditional geomancy. Local communities have formulated collective rules for protecting such forests, which were considered to represent informal institutions at the local level. Their roles were contrasted with those of the government, which were considered to represent formal institutions at the societal level. Case studies were conducted on Tai Om and She Shan Tsuen in Hong Kong, with the objective of revealing the roles of formal and informal institutions in forest resource governance in Hong Kong. As revealed by the findings, (1) the roles of communities have declined, (2) the government's management mechanism is fragmented, and (3) a mismatch in expectations exists between communities and the government due to differences in management philosophy. Findings can serve as insights for studies on community-based natural resource management in a metropolitan context.

Fengshui forests conserve genetic diversity: a case study of Phoebe bournei (Hemsl.) Yang in southern China.

Fengshui forests (sacred groves) are important in traditional Chinese culture and home to many endangered species. These forests may provide protection for some endangered plant species outside the nature reserves, but little is known about their role in genetic conservation. Using inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers, we compared the genetic diversity of 6 populations of Phoebe bournei (Hemsl.) Yang, a commercially important woody species, which is under second-class national protection and endemic to China. Samples were collected from the nature reserves and Fengshui forests in southern China. Herein, we show that Fengshui forest populations are capable of maintaining some level of genetic diversity. For nature reserve populations, the average NA and NE were 1.58 and 1.39, respectively; and for Fengshui forests, they were 1.39 and 1.12, respectively. For nature reserve populations, Nei's gene diversity (H) and Shannon's index (I) were 0.32 and 0.11, respectively; and for Fengshui forests, they were 0.22 and 0.07, respectively. We discuss the reasons for the genetic differences between populations of the Fengshui forests and nature reserves and propose conservation strategies for the Fengshui forest.

Survival of a tertiary relict species, Liriodendron chinense (Magnoliaceae), in southern China, with special reference to village fengshui forests

We investigate factors supporting the persistence in southern China of a rare Tertiary relict tree species, Liriodendron chinense, which has been almost eliminated by recent land use conversion. We hypothesize that cultural practices and traditional sustainable forest resource uses provide niches for the species' regeneration that will complement infrequent natural disturbances, while the species' survival on remote mountain slopes where there are no humans depends on natural disturbances alone. • We examined and analyzed various landscape contexts, community associations, age distributions, and regeneration patterns of Liriodendron chinense. • Forest communities containing Liriodendron chinense were of three types: (1) village fengshui forests-mature forests dominated by Tertiary relict taxa Liriodendron, Toona, and Emmenopterys, protected for their supposed spiritual value; (2) young secondary forests near villages, dominated solely by Liriodendron; and (3) old secondary forest remnants on mountain slopes far from villages, dominated by Liriodendron with other Tertiary relicts of the genera Davidia and Sassafras. The age structure of Liriodendron indicated ample recruitment in the first two forest types, where the activities of local people have provided regeneration niches for the survival of this shade-intolerant pioneer species. On the remote mountain slopes that have never been converted to agriculture, Liriodendron has survived through regeneration made possible by natural disturbances. • The traditional human land use, influenced by cultural values, has supplemented infrequent natural disturbances, providing regeneration niches for this and other Tertiary remnant species near villages in mountain valleys, while on uninhabited mountain slopes the species depends on natural disturbances to survive.

Village Fengshui Forests of Southern China – Culture History and Conservation Status

The post-reform revival of fengshui and related indigenous spiritual practices in China has revitalized traditional village management of “ fengshui forests” (“ fengshuilin ”). This study examines the cosmological principles, landscape ecology, conservation status, and floristic diversity of forest patches that comprise important biological refugia in China’s subtropical broadleaved forest region. From 1949-1979, fengshui was prohibited by the state, but many lineage villages continued to protect fengshuilin through nontraditional means. The restoration of fengshui has enhanced fengshuilin preservation traditions, but lack of state recognition has impeded systematic research and conservation planning. We assess the status of fengshui practice, fengshuilin management, enforcement of harvesting bans, and tree species selection in seventeen villages associated with over 40 forest patches. There is little evidence of utilitarian criteria for tree species selection, thus fengshuilin contain diverse taxonomic assemblages. This suggests strong local institutional capacity for maintaining and enhancing forest diversity and unique traditions of indigenous landscape ecology. We would like to express our deep gratitude for the generosity of the Freeman Foundation and ASIANetwork for funding through the ASIANetwork Freeman Student-Faculty Fellows Program for Collaborative Research in Asia. Without their support for field research in the summer of 2011, this project would not have been possible.

Fengshui forest management by the Buyi ethnic minority in China

Fengshui forests, very popular among the ethnic minorities in the rural areas in Guizhou Province of China, have spiritual symbolic meanings and are strictly managed. This paper examines the nature, history, local perceptions and management of fengshui forests in two Buyi villages in the Guizhou Province. With their long history, the fengshui forests are perceived to provide good wishes, security, unity, fortune, wealth and health to the local communities. Fengshui forests act as a form of “community based nature reserve” which maintains the health of natural forests, especially hydrological features and prevention of soil erosion. Cunguimingyue (Folk Regulation and Customs) is the primary local normative mechanism that maintains the fengshui forests in a good condition. The lessons learnt from local fengshui forest management needs to be incorporated in for contemporary China's forest policy formulation as these forests play an important role in rural livelihoods.

Effects of human disturbance on understory woody species composition and diversity in fengshui forests

Effects of human disturbance on understory woody species composition and diversity in fengshui forests

Vegetation Chronosequence in Hong Kong: Soil Properties and SuccessionalDevelopment

The soil properties of a vegetation chronosequence in Hong Kong involving a grassland, a 22‐year mixed woodland, a 52‐year forest and two graduation 150‐year old climax (feng shui) forests were examined. The objectives were to test the three hypotheses: (1) there are no significant differences in soil chemical properties between different climax forests, (2) exotic species are inferior to native species in soil amelioration; and (3) organic carbon, nitrogen and cation nutrients tend to accumulate in the soils during successional development of the vegetation. The results show that the soils along the vegetation chronosequence are strongly acidic in reaction, contained moderate to high levels of organic carbon, high exchangeable acidity, and low levels of mineral nitrogen (NH⊂4⊂> and NO⊂3⊂), available phosphorus and cation nutrients. All the three hypotheses are rejected. While the feng shui forests differed markedly in soil properties, exotic species were superior to native species in augmenting soil organic carbon, mineral nitrogen and exchangeable Ca. There was no accumulation of organic carbon, nitrogen and cation nutrients with ecological succession, due to the influence of patchy fire, species composition, parent materials and distance from the sea.