Current Status and Future Trends for Eco-compensation in China

Transcription

1 Nov., 2015 Journal of Resources and Ecology Vol.6 No.6 J. Resour. Ecol (6) DOI: /j.issn x Eco. Compensation Current Status and Future Trends for Eco-compensation in China XIE Gaodi 1 *, CAO Shuyan 1,2, LU Chunxia 1, ZHANG Changshun 1 and XIAO Yu 1 1 Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing , China; 2 Beijing Institute of Petro-chemical Technology, Beijing , China Abstract: Eco-compensation, known as payment for ecosystem services, is defined in China as an institutional arrangement for regulating the relationship of economic interests among ecological protectors, beneficiaries and destructors in order to protect ecological service function and foster harmony between people and nature with non-market and market tools including transfer payment, taxes and fees. Reasonable compensation to ecological service providers significantly contributes to the protection of ecological assets and effective supply of ecological services by adopting transfer payments or market transactions on the basis of comprehensively considering the costs of ecological protection, costs of development opportunity and ecological service values. It is helpful for implementing a strategy for main functional areas. The building of eco-compensation mechanisms is therefore highly valued as the most important institutional guarantee for promoting the ecological civilization. Existing ecocompensation mechanisms mainly fall into three categories: exchequer based transfer payment, vertical and horizontal, and market based compensation in China. The institutional framework has been primarily established, inclusive of a forest ecological benefit compensation fund system, grassland eco-compensation system and transfer payment system of national key ecological function areas. Under the framework, various areas and departments have actively explored the building of an eco-compensation system and achieved important progress for forests, grassland, wetlands, river basins and water resources, exploitation of mineral resources, oceans and national key ecological functions areas. However, the eco-compensation system dominated by vertical transfer payments is still far from perfect in China. The interest regulation pattern of developer to protect and beneficiary to compensate has not been formed. Its role in the protection of the ecological environment has not been brought into full play. China should improve eco-compensation systems by intensifying eco-compensation inputs, strengthening government responsibility, diversifying eco-compensation tools, and establishing institutional systems. Key words: eco-compensation; eco-compensation system; payment for ecosystem service 1 Theoretical basis of ecological services and eco-compensation models Eco-compensation, termed environmental services or payment for ecosystem services (Krausmann et al. 2009), is generally considered in China as an institutional arrangement regulating economic interests among ecological protectors, beneficiaries and destructors in order to protect ecological service function and foster harmony between people and nature with transfer payments, taxes, fees and other fiscal and market measures based on service values of ecosystems, cost of ecological protection and opportunity costs of development (Wang et al. 2006; Zhuang et al. 1995; Liu 2012). Reasonable compensation to ecological service providers is of great significance to the protection of ecological assets, effective supply of ecological services and harmonizing people-nature relationship by adopting measures including transfer payments or market instruments. The building of eco-compensation mechanisms is the most important institutional guarantee for promoting an ecological civilization. 1.1 Theoretical basis of eco-compensation: ecological service Theoretically, eco-compensation should explain why it is being carried out, and how it is carried out including who should pay, who should be compensated, and how much the payment or compensation should be. Ecological service Received: Accepted: Foundation: the National Science and Technology Support Program (NO.2013BAC03B05). * Corresponding author: XIE Gaodi. xiegd@igsnrr.ac.cn.

2 356 Journal of Resources and Ecology Vol.6 No.6, 2015 theory could provide a general theoretical framework for eco-compensation due to the fact that ecological service and eco-compensation are based on theories of externality, public goods and ecological assets. The key theoretical basis of what ecological service theory provides for ecocompensation can be concluded as: (i) ecosystem, as natural resources, is turned into and viewed as natural asset once its property right is determined. (ii) Ecosystem has functions of material conversion, energy flow and information transmission and provides ecological services to people in the process of ecological cycles. Ecosystems, once viewed as natural assets, definitely create and provide values for society. Ecological services have the property of public goods, and only a part of the services are consumed by local producers and the overflow are consumed by other regions. (iii) Ecological services have complicated and diversified values to people. Some values could be realized and compensated by current economic relations while some could not due to the fact that there is no market or incomplete market for ecological services. And (iv) value of ecological services should be fully and properly realized. Ecological service values to be compensated should cover all unpaid overflow values no matter whether they can be achieved in a market. 1.2 Models of eco-compensation The above theoretical framework has clear logic in explaining eco-compensation. When applied, however, eco-compensation faces problems of accurately measuring the proportion of both ecological service overflow to other regions to the total and of those ecological values which could be realized by market mechanisms to the total unpaid overflow. Simplified and feasible alternatives have been created and adopted in the practice of solving these problems. Eco-compensation is generally classified from different points of view. According to the scale of compensation, eco-compensation has models of global compensation, interregional compensation, regional compensation and project-based compensation. It would be divided into national, regional, departmental and industrial compensation based on the level of compensation. In terms of form of compensation payment, it has models of ecocompensation fee, eco-compensation tax, eco-compensation margin system, fiscal subsidy system, preferential credit and loan, trading system and domestic and overseas funds. Eco-compensation models, according to the operation mode of compensation, fall into government-dominated mode, market-based mode and mixed mode. Government mode might be dominated by a hierarchy of organizations from central government, local government to administrative department and industries and has four corresponding modes. Central government mode, usually executed by special fund of transfer payment from the exchequer and key ecological construction projects, dominates ecocompensation system and has distinct characteristics of compensating for historical ecological debt and serving national patterns in China. Ecosystem type (e.g. forest, grassland and wet land) based modes takes up its major part. Local government mode is relatively weak, but local governments are the executers of national eco-compensation policy (Li and Liu 2010; Wang and Hou 2013; Liu and Liu 2013). Current fiscal and tax mechanisms of eco-compensation in China mainly include transfer payment from the exchequer, longitudinal/vertical or horizontal, and market means. Vertical transfer payment includes general transfer payment (for example, transfer payment to resource depletion cities), special transfer payment for historical contribution (usually targeting major ecological projects), and transfer payment to key ecological functional areas to shape and balance national patterns by purchasing ecological services. Central special transfer payment is the major method of vertical transfer mode, mainly including three members (Wang 2014). The first is energy conservation and environment protection, which is actually based on defined projects of ecological environment protection, including of natural ecosystem protection, natural forest protection, grain for green, sandstorm and desertification control, grazing withdrawal and returning farmland into grassland. The second is agricultural, forestry and water resource affairs, including agriculture based payment (e.g. expenditure arrangement for the restoration of grassland vegetation), forestry based payment (e.g. forest cultivation, compensation of forest ecological benefit, forestry bio-reserve, fauna and flora protection, wet land protection, desertification prevention and control), water conservancy based payment (e.g. conservation of water and soil, charge for water resources, expenditure of dinas resources), south-to-north water transfer based payment (e.g. for protection of environment, immigrants and management of water resources), and overall development of rural areas (e.g. land governance) target payment. The third is affairs of territorial resources and meteorology, including land resources affairs (utilization and protection of land resources, utilization and protection of geological and mineral resources, expenditure and special revenue arrangement of mineral resources), and ocean management affairs (e.g. charge for sea area utilization). There are government funds related to eco-compensation, such as compensatory afforestation fund and forest vegetation restoration fee. Horizontal transfer payment means mutual transfer of fiscal resources among local governments, especially of the same level. It is desired to solve externality generated by overflow of ecological benefits or costs among regions without the purpose of financial equalization. The transfer payment is still very weak and mainly carried out by pilot attempts and initiative attempts in China, for example, water environment protection projects in the Minjiang

3 XIE Gaodi, et al.: Current Status and Future Trends for Eco-compensation in China 357 River and Jiulongjiang River of Fujian Province, and water environment compensation pilot project for the Xin anjiang River (Yang 2013). Some regions have developed a compensation model. An example is the inter-city agreement signed by Dongyang and Yiwu of Zhejiang Province in Yiwu, a downstream city, could permanently achieve nearly 50 million m³ water from Hengjin reservoir of Dongyang at the price of about 4 CNY m - ³, as well as certain comprehensive management fees. Another example is off-site compensation mechanism between regions of linked ecological interest (Ouyang et al. 2013) coming from Jinhua of Zhejiang Province. Part of the profits and taxation from relevant enterprises in the Jin- Pan Poverty Alleviation & Economic Development Zone downstream would be returned upstream and compensate it for protection of water sources. These models have facilitated market mechanisms extending from simple fiscal tools towards interregional mutual negotiation, providing innovation of eco-compensation models. Market models carry out eco-compensation through market mechanisms. Generally, it creates the market of ownership of ecological elements, ecosystem services or the quota of environmental emissions, and then lets market determine eco-compensation by public payment, oneto-one transaction or market trading. The most common models include emissions trading, water rights trading, green compensation, quota transaction, ecological label, and ecological expenses and taxes (e.g. eco-compensation fee, emission charges, resource fee, environmental tax). Ecological tax has two basic functions of capital allocation and behavioral motivation of internalizing environmental cost and guiding environmental behavior of environmental services consumers and is widely used in developed countries. 2 China s practice of eco-compensation China has been attaching great importance to the establishment and development of eco-compensation mechanisms in recent years, and building a system of payments for natural resource use and ecosystem services reflecting resource supply, demand and scarcity, showing their ecological value and achieving inter-generational compensation. Important progresses and primary effects have been achieved for forests, grassland, wetlands, watersheds and water resources, mineral resource exploitation, maritime and key ecological functional zones. 2.1 Current status of eco-compensation Eco-compensation systems initially established and their capital input (1) Forest ecological benefit compensation fund system has been established. This eco-compensation system has been implemented nationwide since The Ministry of Finance and State Forestry Bureau have successively introduced Measures of Division of National Public welfare forest and Central Financial Management Methods of Compensation Fund of Forest Ecological Benefit, kicking off the initiative to carry out eco-compensation in China. Annual subsidy for state owned national public welfare forest is 5 CNY mu -1 (15 mu = 1 ha). For group and individual owned national public welfare forests, the annual subsidy has increased from 5 to 15 CNY mu -1, covering as much as 1.87 billion mu. (2) Grassland eco-compensation system has been established. Reward and Subsidy Policies of Grassland Ecological Protection was introduced by the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Agriculture in A subsidy of 6 CNY mu -1 y -1 is given to grassland owners with grazing prohibition; a reward of 1.5 CNY mu -1 y -1 to those owners implementing the system of balance between foraging and animals. Moreover, seed and machinery allowances are given to producers and performance rewards to regions with obvious improvements in grassland ecosystem. Grassland areas enjoying subsidy of grazing prohibition and reward of balance between forage and animal had correspondingly reached 1.23 billion and 2.6 billion mu by the end of (3) Wetland eco-compensation system has been established. The Ministry of Finance, together with State Forestry Bureau, launched a subsidy of wetland protection in 2010, covering 27 internationally important wetlands, 43 wetland natural reserves and 86 national wetland parks. Relevant expenditure of billion CNY was arranged in (4) Transfer payment system in key ecological functional zones. The Ministry of Finance introduced Measures of Transfer Payment in Key Ecological Functional Zones since 2008, and sustainably intensified transfer payments by improving subsidy coefficients of transfer payments to key ecological functional zones such as Sanjiangyuan Nature Reserve in Qinghai and central line water sources of the South-to-North Water Transfer. Transfer payments covered 512 counties and million km 2 of national territorial area by Meanwhile, part of state revenue is appropriated as subsidy to exploitationprohibited areas such as national natural reserves, national scenic areas, national forest parks and national geological parks. Eco-compensation mechanisms for water resources and water and soil conservation, and responsibility systems for mine environmental management and ecological restoration have been explored and established. Eco-compensation capital related to the mechanisms from the state revenue had increased from 2.3 billion CNY in 2001 to 91 billion CNY in 2013 (Table 1). In addition, since 1998, the state has successively launched and implemented major ecological construction projects including grain for green, grazing withdrawal, natural forest protection, governance of sources of sandstorms in Beijing and Tianjin, rocky desertification governance in southwest karst area, comprehensive governance of water and soil loss

4 358 Journal of Resources and Ecology Vol.6 No.6, 2015 Table 1 Annual input of eco-compensation (billion CNY). Compensation projects Year of implementation Input of the beginning year Input of 2013 Central compensation capital of forest ecological effect Capital of grassland ecological reward and subsidy Special capital of mine geological environment Subsidy capital of water and soil conservation Transfer payment in national key ecological function zone Restoration of marine reserves Protection of wetland and water environment Total of eco-compensation capital in key areas of upper and middle reaches of Yangtze River and Yellow River, and comprehensive management of rivers with weak ecosystem such as Sanjiangyuan Nature Reserve in Qinghai, key water source supply region of Yellow River in Gannan, Tarim, Baiyang River and Heihe River. The investment for such ecological projects is accumulatively 800 billion CNY Local actions of eco-compensation for different ecosystems (1) Forest: By 2012, 27 provinces have established a provincial finance-based forest ecological benefit compensation fund system to support the protection of national public welfare forest and local public welfare forest. The fund has reached 5.1 billion CNY. Shandong Province has arranged special capital at the provincial level while organizing finance at the municipal and county levels to compensate for public welfare forest, forming an integrated compensation mechanism linking the four hierarchies of state, province, city and county. Guangdong Province collects compensation capital for public welfare forests from provincial, municipal and county levels in proportion. Fujian Province collects capital downstream of the Jianghe River and then compensates upstream for forest ecological service improvement. Quite different is the compensation standard for local public welfare forests across China. In general, eastern regions have a higher standard while most western regions have a lower one in comparison with central compensation standards. Beijing subsidizes 40 CNY mu -1 y -1 to public welfare forests, as well as 480 CNY person -1 month -1 to forest rangers. (2) Grassland: Inner Mongolia collects funds from multiple channels, supporting national grassland ecological protection reward and subsidy. In 2011, a supporting fund of 1.03 billion CNY was implemented at three levels of autonomous region, prefecture and county, and a livestock reduction task of million sheep units was verified, according to the carrying capacity of grassland and required in three years. Gansu Province has divided its grassland into the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau zone, loess plateau zone and desert steppe zone, and implemented differentiated policies of subsidy for grazing prohibition and rewards for balancing forage production and animals. Gansu has allocated the task of livestock reduction to counties, townships, villages and even herdsmen by signing letters of responsibility. Qinghai Province took the initiative to launch public welfare posts in Sanjiangyuan pilot area in Over local residents have been hired to manage and protect grassland ecosystems at an annual subsidy of CNY person -1. Qinghai has also established the Fund of Sanjiangyuan Protection and Development with the support of provincial finance. (3) Wetlands: Various regions have intensified financial assistance and gradually incorporated important wetlands into eco-compensation systems. Tianjin has arranged a special fund as economic compensation for lands permanently entrusted and managed by groups and individuals in ancient coasts and wetland national natural reserves. Shandong has compensated farmers in areas of reverting cultivated fishing land to wetland and supported farmers to transfer jobs. Heilongjiang and Guangdong provinces arrange the special fund of 10 million CNY each year for compensation pilots of wetland ecological services. In Suzhou, economic losses caused by protection of wet land ecosystems could be compensated in key ecological wetland villages and water source villages. (4) River basin and water sources: State revenue supports eco-compensation pilots in key river basins, and various regions have actively explored horizontal water ecocompensation and formed multiple compensation models. Zhejiang has become the first province to implement ecocompensation to a whole river basin in China by carrying out pilot programs and launching financial transfer payment for source cities and counties in its eight river systems. Jiangxi Province arranged a special fund of ecocompensation in Five Rivers and One Lake (Ganjiang, Fuhe, Xinjiang, Raohe, and Xiuhe rivers and Poyang Lake) and Dongjiang River source reserve. Twenty percent of compensation capital is distributed according to the area of natural reserve and 80% according to transregional water quality. Compensation will be cancelled if transregional water quality is inferior to Grade II of the Water Quality Standard. Eco-compensation has also been carried out in the Taihu Lake Basin in Jiangsu Province, Hanjiang

5 XIE Gaodi, et al.: Current Status and Future Trends for Eco-compensation in China 359 River Basin in Hubei Province and Minjiang River Basin in Fujian Province. Upstream compensates downstream when section water quality exceeds the standard, while downstream compensates upstream in cases of superior section water quality to controlling indicators. Upstream of the Miyun reservoir, Beijing arranges special capital to support Zhangjiakou and Chengde of Hebei Province in implementing the project of paddy to dry land and of 1 million mu water conservation forests in related cities (counties). Tianjin has a special fund supporting protection project of source water diverted from the Luan River. (5) Key ecological functional zones: Jiangsu Province applies ecological transfer payment s to cities and counties with national natural reserves, national forest parks, provincial key natural reserve, key wetlands and/or water conservation. Jiangxi Province has set a reward system of natural reserve and arranged special fund of 10 million CNY each year at the provincial level since Fujian Province arranges transfer payment capital and subsidies and rewards it to exploitation-limited areas and exploitation-prohibited areas in order to improve the capability of public service guarantee. Guangdong Province has a special fund for 26 counties functioned as key ecological functional zones at the provincial level, supporting ecological restoration and livelihood improvement. 2.2 General features of practices of eco-compensation The establishment of eco-compensation systems has ushered in a new situation of ecological protection in China. With many years of effort, key ecological assets have been basically and effectively protected; deterioration of ecological situation has initially curtained; and ecosystems in key governance areas have improved. All positive changes have direct relations to the establishment and practices of eco-compensation mechanisms. Ecocompensation has inconsistent histories, means, standards, contents and effects at the provincial scale, but there are common features: Compensation mode: vertical transfer payment is dominant while horizontal payment is supplementary. Compensation mechanism: governmental tools are the most important forms of eco-compensation. Compensation fee, resource value fee and resource tax have been applied to different extents in provinces. China has relatively diversified government models and very limited market models. Compensation realization: Eco-compensation is usually practiced using physical materials and capital. For example, project-based ecological engineering, such as grain for green, grazing withdrawal and ecological public welfare forests, has been among the most important direct compensation tools. Only a small part is integrated to conversion and development of production mode. Compensation object: eco-compensation targets single defined ecosystem elements using single or limited tools, and rarely targets integrated elements or uses more integrated compensation strategies. Compensation subject: more public departments and less enterprises pay for ecosystems, this is, ecocompensation is still primarily promoted by governments and weakly by markets. Compensation base: China has more regulations and less law delineating eco-compensation. As a result, ecocompensation practices are applied based on normative policy documents formulated by the government and department rules of the State Council (Wang 2014). Compensation aim: eco-compensation is generally designed and carried out in order to balance the cost of ecosystem protection, rather than the benefit of ecosystem protection. Compensation management: China values practices of eco-compensation and neglects the evaluation of achievement, making eco-compensation associated with quantity-based execution. Effect evaluation of eco-compensation practices should be enhanced, and a responsibility restraint system of ecological construction and protection should be established. Compensation standard: Eco-compensation standards vary among regions and have been below the theoretical value. Protectors expect more than what they are compensated. 3 Major problems and trends for ecocompensation development 3.1 Major problems with eco-compensation in China (1) Eco-compensation should be further intensified. First, the range of coverage is not large enough. Current eco-compensation focuses on forest, grassland and exploitation of mineral resources. Eco-compensation for river basin, wetlands and oceans are still in the initial stage, and on cultivated land are very limited. Second, the standard of compensation is relatively low. For example, current compensation standards for group owned national public welfare forest and the subsidy of balance between foraging and animals is seriously below the additional costs of production and economic loss of livestock reduction. Compensation standards in some fields are too general to adapt to some ecological areas. Third, capital channels and tools of compensation are limited. Compensation capital mainly relies on transfer payments from state revenue. Other channels, such as input by local government, enterprise and public institution, preferential credit and loan, and social donation, are obviously absent. In addition, payment and management measures of compensation are incomplete. In some places, compensation is not granted in a timely way or in full, and part of the compensation may be appropriated or misappropriated. (2) Basic systems support needs to be improved. First, relevant property rights systems are incomplete. Defining property right is the precondition of making clear

6 360 Journal of Resources and Ecology Vol.6 No.6, 2015 the subject, object and service value of eco-compensation. Unclear property rights have restricted the development of eco-compensation mechanisms. Rates of awarding and delivering forest right certification still need to be improved according to reform of collective forest property rights systems. Nearly one fourth of grassland in China has not been contracted and most public grassland has been overgrazed. Grassland rights remain unclear, as well as contradictory to forest rights in southern China and in the farming-pastoral region. Second, implementation of eco-compensation dependents on main functional areas delineation and ecological functions zoning of provinces. But the main functional areas delineation of some provinces is still not published. Ecological function zoning at the provincial level is in need of zoning and clearer functional orientation. Third, fundamental works and technological support are insufficient and have been lagging behind demands and practice, especially for systems of ecocompensation standards, of ecological service value assessment and of ecological environmental monitoring. Relevant parties have not reached consensus for standards of eco-compensation, as well as an indicator system and calculating and valuing methods of measurement of ecosystem service values. (3) The rights and liabilities of protector and beneficiary have not be fully valued and embodied. First, compensation for ecological protectors is insufficient. People in key ecological function areas have contributed a lot to the protection of the ecological environment, but achieve lower compensation and afford higher protection costs in most of regions and cases. Multiple factors result in such problems including low standards and lack of timely and full payment of compensation capital. Especially in some regions without clear basic information of ecological area and protectors, eco-compensation cannot be effectively applied even at lower standards with full coverage. This is one of the reasons affecting the enthusiasm of protectors. Second, the responsibility of ecological protectors is not fully fulfilled and compensation capital is not closely connected to the responsibility of protection. Invested compensation capital has not achieved desired ecological protection effects in some areas and some areas even destroy ecosystems while enjoying eco-compensation. Third, most ecological beneficiaries lack awareness of implementing compensation obligations with traditional mentality of free consumption of ecological products with public right. (4) Diversified compensation methods need to be created. Horizontal eco-compensation has been attempted in some places in recent years.china needs to observe and assess its effects and extend it to more suitable regions. Insufficient development of horizontal eco-compensation is primarily due to limited legal bases and policy norms at the state and local level as well as a lack of platforms and mechanisms of negotiation between ecologically beneficiary areas and protection areas. Reform of resource tax has not covered mineral products such as coal, and environmental tax is still in the process of research and argumentation, restricting capital collection of eco-compensation. Market compensation methods, such as carbon sink trading, emissions trading and water rights trading remain in exploration stages. (5) Construction of policies, laws and regulations is delayed. Currently, there are no special laws for ecocompensation in China. Relative laws and regulations concerning eco-compensation are split across various laws and lack integration and applicability. Although relevant governmental departments have introduced some policy documents and regulations concerning eco-compensation in recent years, they lack authority and binding force. Failure to observe the law and slack enforcement have occurred across the nation. 3.2 Trend of development It is anticipated that China will gradually develop ecocompensation systems in the future. Producers deserve rewards at equal exchange when they sell ecological products and services. Some ecological products and services, as public goods, have externality and have no specific beneficiaries. In such cases, the central and local governments, as the agents of major beneficiaries, should purchase ecological products and services and compensate producers through transfer payments. Trend 1: Input in eco-compensation willbe intensified. In aspect of capital input, the state revenue should balance diversified ecological functionsand protection costsamong regions using transfer payments. Transfer payments to key ecological functional zones, especially those in central and western regions should be intensified by improving higher transfer payments. Capital sources how new trends. Existing special funds for ecological environmental protection would be integrated and focus on supporting the ecological protection and restoration of national key ecological function zones. Higher margin rates would be applied to geological environment improvements and ecosystem restoration in mine areas and more endeavors paid to collect funds for water and soil conservation. China would improve the design and management of the resource fees system and appropriate a higher portion of collected fees as ecocompensation capital. The market would contribute more to the capital pools of eco-compensation by promoting reform of natural resources taxes, including coal, according to their price, enlarging the cover of resource tax, properly adjusting tax burdens and levying environmental taxes. Trend 2: Role of the government will be enhanced. Governments should cooperate at various levels. The central government is mainly in charge of eco-compensation in national key ecological functional zones, important ecological regions, major waste mining areas and transprovincial river basins. Local governments are responsible

7 XIE Gaodi, et al.: Current Status and Future Trends for Eco-compensation in China 361 for their key ecological functional zones, important ecological regions, waste mining areas, concentrated drinking water sources and river basins under their administration. All governments should integrate ecocompensation into governmental budgets, pragmatically implement obligations of payment, and ensure timely granting of compensation capital in full. It is important to guide various beneficiaries including enterprises, social organizations and non-governmental organizations to implement their eco-compensation obligations, supervise ecological destructors in effectively implementing ecosystem restoration, and urge those compensation gainers to implement their responsibility of ecological protection and construction. Detailed and stricter supervision mechanisms of distributing eco-compensation capital andrelative rights and liabilitiesof organizations would be carried out. Trend 3: Compensation methods will be diversified. Vertical transfer payments, horizontal compensation, and market tools would be developed synchronously. For vertical eco-compensation mechanisms, governments would focus on scientific formulation and dynamic adjustment of eco-compensation standards as well as monitoring and evaluation of eco-compensation effects. Voluntary negotiation among ecologically interdependent partners including developer, beneficiaries and protectors of ecosystem has been encouraged. Governments would focus more on building the platform of negotiation by improving supportive policy and techniques to make clear the background of ecosystem functions and services of defined regions and rational resource allocation quota between regions. It is believed that more channels of cooperation than capital subsidy would join in the horizontal payment family, such as linkage cooperation, industrial transfer, talent training and joint construction of parks. Future horizontal mechanisms may be much sounder than current ones. Market systems would focus on creating markets of ecological services and standardizing the market. Ecological products and services could be cashed into the pockets of their owners and producers by eco-labels and nature-based trading platforms on carbon sink, emissions and water resource. Nature would pool sustainably more capital. Trend 4: Institutional systems will be improved. First, policies and regulations of eco-compensation would be introduced, including revising and improving Opinions on Establishing and Improving Eco-compensation Mechanism and drafting Regulations of Eco-compensation to make clear the principles, objects and subjects (coverage of regions, ecological elements, organizations and persons), standards and their purposes, rights and obligations of involved organizations and persons and measurement of monitoring and assessing of eco-compensation. Various regions would be encouraged to introduce normative documents or local regulations so as to promote institutionalization and legalization of eco-compensation. Second, relevant supporting systems should be established and improved, including deepening the reform of the property system of forest rights, grassland contraction and operation rights, mining exploitation rights and water rights, and improving the system of property rights registration. Third, the system of eco-compensation standards and adjustment for balancing development would be established for defined ecosystems, regions and compensation tools by improving methodologies and strategies. Fourth, China would establish sound indicator systems for monitoring and evaluating ecosystems, and intensify the monitoring network or points especially in key ecological functional zones and adjacent sections of trans-provincial river basins, and provide timely feedback for all agents involved. The systems concerned with statistical information dissemination and effect evaluation of eco-compensation would be established. Growing groups researching ecological service evaluation would be encouraged and cultivated. References Krausmann F, S Gingrich, N Eisenmenger, et al Growth in global materials use, GDP and population during the 20th century. Ecological Economics, 68(10): Li W H, Liu M C Several stragetic thoughts on China s ecocompensation mechanism. Resources Science, 32 (5): (in Chinese) Liu C L, Liu W D Study of provincial differences and influencial factors of eco-compensation in China. Journal of Natural Resources, 29(10): Liu X Y Progress in the study on the ecological compensation of Grassland. Practaculture Science, 29(2): (in Chinese) Ouyang Z Y, Zheng H, Yue P. Establishment of ecological compensation mechanisms in China: Perspectives and strategies. Acta Ecological Sinica, 33(3): (in Chinese) Wang J F, HouC B Study on implementation framework and compensationpattern of basin ecological compensation in China. China Population, Resources and Environment, 23(2): (in Chinese) Wang J N, Wan J, Zhang H Y, et al Policy assessment and framework exploration of eco-compensation in China. In: Zhuang G T, Wang J N (Eds.). Collected Papers of International Seminar of Eco-compensation Mechanism and Policy Design. Beijing: China Environmental Science Press, (in Chinese) Wang J History and prospect of construction of eco-compensation system in China. Environmental Protection, (3): (in Chinese) Yang X M Establishment of eco-compensation and horizontal transfer payment in China. Finance Research, (2): (in Chinese) Zhuang G T, Gao P, Wang X J Theory and practice of levy on ecological environmental compensation in China. China Environmental Science, 15(6): (in Chinese)

8 362 Journal of Resources and Ecology Vol.6 No.6, 2015 中国生态补偿的现状与趋势 谢高地 1, 曹淑艳 1,2, 鲁春霞 1, 张昌顺 1 1, 肖玉 1 中国科学院地理科学与资源研究所, 北京 ; 2 北京石油化工学院, 北京 摘要 : 生态补偿的内涵在国际上指的是生态系统服务付费, 在国内一般被认为是以保护生态服务功能 促进人与自然和谐相处为目的, 根据生态系统服务价值 生态保护成本 发展机会成本等, 运用财政 税费 市场等手段, 调节生态保护者 受益者和破坏者经济利益关系的一种制度安排 建立生态补偿机制, 是建设生态文明的重要制度保障 在综合考虑生态保护成本 发展机会成本和生态服务价值的基础上, 采取财政转移支付或市场交易等方式, 对生态保护者给予合理补偿, 对于实施主体功能区战略 确保生态服务的有效供给具有重要意义 我国现行生态补偿的财税机制主要包括纵向财政转移支付 横向财政转移支付和市场化模式三大类 通过总结我国生态补偿现状可以看出, 我国已经初步形成了由中央森林生态效益补偿基金制度 草原生态补偿制度 重点生态功能区转移支付制度等构成的生态补偿制度框架 在该制度框架下, 各地区 各部门积极探索生态补偿机制建设, 在森林 草原 湿地 流域和水资源 矿产资源开发 海洋以及重点生态功能区等领域取得了重要进展 但总体来看, 我国的生态补偿机制还没有根本确立, 谁开发谁保护 谁受益谁补偿的利益调节格局还没有真正形成, 对生态环境保护还没有充分发挥作用 今后生态补偿的发展趋势有 :(1) 生态补偿投入力度的增强 ;(2) 政府责任的强化 ; (3) 补偿方式的多元化发展 ;(4) 制度体系建立 关键词 : 生态补偿 ; 生态补偿机制 ; 生态系统服务付费