Chinese Policies and Practices regarding Payments for Ecological Services in Watersheds

Watersheds provide a variety of ecological services including soil and water conservation, carbon sequestration and biodiversity protection. However, activities in a fast-growing economy significantly impact the supply and demand of these watershed services. To mitigate these impacts, the concept of payment for environmental and ecosystem services from water-sheds has emerged in global academic and policy circles. The governments and academic communities in China have increas-ingly described payments for ecological services from watersheds with the concept of watershed eco-compensation as it is urgent to protect watershed ecosystems. Watershed eco-compensation has proved to be one of the most economically effective means of solving environmental problems of watersheds to be adopted by the Chinese government. This paper presents an objective analysis of the Chinese market for watershed ecosystem services, including supply and demand for the services. It also summarizes Chinese policies on watershed eco-compensation, including relevant laws and regulations and fiscal policies. In addition, it presents a re-view of Chinese practices in watershed eco-compensation, in-cluding the analysis of an ecological construction project in West-ern China, inter-provincial watershed eco-compensation practices and plans, and payment for ecological services at the provincial and small watershed levels. Finally, it summarizes the key com-ponents of the process of payment in Chinese watershed eco-compensation. This discussion forms the basis of concluding suggestions for ecosystem services compensation and ecological protection in the large scale river basin.

Adjustment of Payments for Ecological Benefits in Traditional Agricultural Areas: Case Study on SADO Island, Japan

To date, theories of eco-compensation and biological restoration have been popular, and some models in developed countries are treated as good examples. Here, we not only focus on Japan, but also pay more attention to challenges during this process. Based on a long-term field study on Sado Island, a less developed region in Japan, we attempt to describe how the government carries out environmental remediation towards the reintroduction of ibis （Species name） into the wild, and the conflict between ibis habitat restoration and farm management. We discuss the underlying reasons for this conflict and the negative effect on regional development. We follow policy improvements of the local government and related supplementary help carried out to fix the mismatch between the payment for ecological benefits and that lost by farmers in the pre-period. We conclude that the coordination of interest among different social groups is the key for success in ecological restoration and compensatory measures have to be made to meet the actual needs of the local groups. This case study in Japan can be applied to similar regions with poor environments and urgent environment restoration needs in China.