Today’s stone forest landscape is the result of a long period of geological and geographical evolution in which the Shilin area changed from ocean to land, from lowland to plateau. With the increases in latitude and altitude, the Shilin Area has also changed from a warm and humid tropical climate to the present plateau monsoon subtropical climate.

The Shilin area preserves and displays a typical subtropical plateau karst ecological system featuring four kinds of karst forests, the evergreen broad-leaved forest, sclero phyllous evergreen broad-leaved forest, deciduous broad-leaved forest and subtropical coniferous forest. Of the Evergreen broad-leaved forest, Cyclobalanopsis glaucoides and Castanopsis delavayi are the representative forest types on the eastern Yunnan karst plateau. Also, there are a number of protected animal and plant species in the Shilin area.