Although China is generally considered to have suffered continuous deforestation over most of its history, forests were protected or even planted and maintained for centuries in some places. This study identifies six such cases. It uses historical evidence to show that individuals and communities act to manage resources sustainably for a number of reasons including economic benefit, religious or symbolic purposes, and that sustainability of the management system depends on the form of control exerted over the resource.

Although China is generally considered to have suffered continuous deforestation over most of its history, forests were protected or even planted and maintained for centuries in some places. This study identifies six such cases. It uses historical evidence to show that individuals and communities act to manage resources sustainably for a number of reasons including economic benefit, religious or symbolic purposes, and that sustainability of the management system depends on the form of control exerted over the resource.

Volume VI Part 3 of Science and Civilisation in China contains two separate works. The first, by Christian Daniels, is a comprehensive history of Chinese sugarcane technology from ancient times to the early twentieth century. Dr. Daniels includes an account of the contribution of Chinese techniques and machinery to the development of world sugar technology in the premodern period, devoting special attention to the transfer of this technology to the countries of Southeast and East Asia in the period after the sixteenth century. The second, by Nicholas K. Menzies, is a history of forestry in...