The Ecological Consciousness and Ecological Protection of Hanjiang River Watershed from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China (1644—1949)

From the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, the forest ecosystem of Hanjiang River watershed was seriously damaged, resulting in soil erosion, river siltation and flooding disasters frequently occurring. Regarding this, some local officials, gentry, men of insight and the villagers began to introspect the relationship between forest and those natural disasters, and concurrently their ecological consciousness was gradually enhanced. Therefore, some measures to protect the ecological environment were initiated, mainly from two aspects: 1) the rural regulations to stop deforestation behavior of people from the perspective of the forest protection were formulated; 2) afforestation from trees planting was advocated to fundamentally solve the problems concerning large-scale forest destruction.