The Construction of Near-Natural Forests in the Urban Areas of Shanghai

Throughout the ages, China has had a high regard for afforestation and forest protection. Old growth forests, secondary forests, Fengshui forests (which can be good luck for forest owners, such as monastery or temple forests, cemetery forests, and forests around houses), all of various areas and patterns, are seen across the nation. While forests have been planted throughout the nation since 1950 to improve environmental quality, the pace of forest construction has accelerated since 1980. As a result, China is now among the top nations with the greatest area of human-made forests in the world. Because the history of human activities in China has been long and often violent, indigenous vegetation has been severely damaged. This has made forest construction and reconstruction difficult by decreasing the survival rate of these forests and prolonging the time it takes for their restoration and establishment. Although this situation has been partially caused by problems such as policies and lack of funding, the lack of proper theory to support operational methods that can guide forest construction projects has also created setbacks. At present, there are discrepancies and inconsistencies in theories and methods for informing the process of restoring and reconstructing urban forest ecosystems (Hobbs, 1996; Allen et al., 1997; Palmer et al., 1997; Miyawaki, 1998; Bao and Chen, 1999; Zhang and Xu, 1999). Empirical studies that scientifically experiment with various methods and test different theories are needed both to advance the discipline of urban forestry and to determine best management techniques and approaches in different urban contexts.