The Border Forest of Song Dynasty

Since the ancient times, China has got the tradition of building military defense projects using forest trees. Because of the need for military defense capabilities around the borders with Liao, Jin, Western Xia, Tibetan,and Dali, the Song Dynasty did a lot to construct and protect the border forest in Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Sichuan provinces, the area between the Yangtze and Huai rivers, and Jingxiang district. In view of the timing and scope,the border forest was found to be the result of deliberate management of the Song Dynasty, which regarded the policy of border forest as an important part of the national defense policy. Despite intermittent construction, the border forest still played an important role in the stability of the border, and had positive impacts on local peoples lives and ecological environment.