The Social And Cultural Causes And Countermeasures Of Ecological Degeneration In Wuling Mountainous Area

Since the 20 th century,continuous ecological deterioration has always accompanied by intense “Human and land relationship”.Especially in the contemporary,ecological degeneration is spreading nationwide and impacting people's livelihood seriously.If ignored,this would lead to free evolution of the degeneration and great challenge towards sustainable development of human life.In this context,Wuling Mountainous Area also exposed various ecological problems,mainly reflected in frequent ecological disasters,declined biodiversity,suffocated agricultural production,reduced land productivity etc.Researches upon the causes for ecological degeneration are resulted in deferent ways.Some scholars are used to identify that population growth must be the immediate cause of ecological degeneration,especially after the population growth,the overstocking,excessive firewood chop,over reclamation etc.are doing great harm to natural ecological system.Many others hold that social destructiveness like wars are causing even much more impact on ecological change.The changes of ecological system,however,are usually a slow evolution process of accumulation.The reason lies in that large scale of material and energy are included in ecological system.Human are interacting with ecosystem but not able to destroy its stability.Only under the co-evolution of culture and ecology,resource utilization patterns are not compatible with local natural and ecological system,and after long time of accumulation will ecosystem change occur.Wuling Mountainous Area is the transition zone not only for natural and ecological structure,but also for different national culture distribution.Xiangxi Area is apparently different from inland and Yunnan-Guizhou plateau hinterland,thus governance of previous dynasties in this area had to take economy strategies distinguishingly.Policies should be made related to local people's social life in all regards,including population flow,industrial structure adjustment,social management system innovation,etc.The most direct function of it is the guiding role for resource utilization.The mode of resource utilization determines the relationship between human and land.But today's ecological fact tells us that the current resource utilization way is appropriate obviously,otherwise it can't make so many ecological disasters exposed.Fortunately,significant social changes had taken place in this area after “Bureaucratization of native officers”.Local literature were compiled by administrative department of all levels,so as to make historical issued be reflected systematically.Prefecture and county chorography were edited in different stage.“The Products chorography”,for example,completely recorded the production and living conditions of people in the specific period,including agriculture,forestry,industry and other by-products' operating situation.It explains systematically the interaction between human production activities and natural and ecological system under the same field of time and space.People's interpretation is mainly focused on that if the resource utilization and the natural and ecological system are compatible with each other,if they adapt to each other.Social and cultural causes of ecological degeneration can thus be found.Taking history as a mirror,therefore,the reconstruction of harmonious relationship between man and nature is the right way to solve ecological problems.Today the “ecological civilization” construction has become an established national policy.Ecological function areas(soil and water conservation,biodiversity)in Wuling Mountainous Area have been established.Ecological restoration and protection in Wuling Mountainous Area will be directly related to the national ecological security.For this reason,in order to re-examine the traditional way of livelihood,people need to take into account the already existed cultural and ecological structure in the history,from which the optimization goal,method,path of contemporary ecological construction can be gained,useful ecological restoration and maintenance means and methods will be recognized from local traditional knowledge and skills of various nationalities.It is learnt from history that targeted prevention of ecological catastrophe will not only benefit governments' assessment on the policy merits and demerits in Wuling Mountainous Area,but also provide reference for governments' decision making in the contemporary.