Feng Jun, Jiangsu Yangtze River Economic Belt Research Institute, Nantong University: Further stimulate the enthusiasm of the whole basin to participate in ecological protection

When General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over a symposium on further promoting the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, he emphasized that the compensation mechanism for horizontal ecological protection should be improved to stimulate the enthusiasm of the whole basin to participate in ecological protection. Ecological protection compensation is an environmental and economic policy based on the principle of "beneficiary pays", and is an important part of China's ecological civilization system. Ecological protection compensation aims to coordinate the interests of all parties according to many factors such as ecosystem service value, ecological protection cost, development opportunity cost, etc., and comprehensively use administrative and market means to coordinate the interests of all parties, and finally realize the protection, restoration and sustainable use of ecological resources.

Ecological protection compensation is divided into vertical compensation and horizontal compensation. Vertical compensation refers to the financial transfer payment implemented by the higher-level government to encourage the lower-level government to promote ecological protection and restoration. Horizontal compensation refers to compensation between basins or regions, which aims to regulate the interests of subjects who do not have a subordinate relationship. The implementation of ecological protection compensation is an inherent requirement for practicing the concept of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets", and is an important means to implement the rights and responsibilities of ecological protection, mobilize the enthusiasm of all parties to participate in ecological protection, and promote the construction of ecological civilization.

Many important ecological function areas in the Yangtze River basin are not only ecologically fragile areas, but also areas with restricted development, and their economic development is relatively lagging behind. These areas have sacrificed certain development opportunities to protect the ecology, and the beneficiary areas should compensate them. In 2011, under the promotion of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces began to pilot ecological protection compensation in the Xin'an River Basin, and three rounds of pilot projects have been completed so far. In June this year, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces signed the "Agreement on Jointly Building the Xin'anjiang-Qiandao Lake Ecological Protection and Compensation Model Area", opening the fourth round of pilots, expanding the scope to the whole area of Huangshan City and Xuancheng City in Anhui Province and the whole area of Hangzhou City and Jiaxing City in Zhejiang Province. The pilot work has achieved the simultaneous improvement of ecological, economic and social benefits, explored a mutually beneficial and win-win road for the upstream to actively strengthen protection and the downstream to support the upstream development, and formed a number of replicable and popularized practical experiences known as the "Xin'anjiang model".

In recent years, the central government and relevant ministries and commissions have successively issued policies on ecological protection and compensation in the Yangtze River Basin. Many provinces and cities along the Yangtze River have also explored cross-provincial ecological protection compensation. For example, Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan jointly signed the "Chishui River Basin Horizontal Ecological Compensation Agreement", which clarifies that the three provinces will jointly contribute to the establishment of compensation funds according to the ratio of 1:5:4. Hunan, Chongqing, and Jiangxi provinces and cities carry out horizontal ecological protection compensation in the Youshui Basin, and the compensation funds are calculated on a monthly basis with the water quality reaching Class III standards as the assessment target. In addition, in terms of horizontal ecological protection compensation at the county level, Liyang, Jiangsu Province explored the establishment of quantifiable cross-regional ecological capacity trading standards in the Suzhou-Anhui Cooperation Demonstration Zone and the "One Ridge and Six Counties" area, and signed a framework agreement on regional ecological environment co-protection and co-governance with Guangde and Langxi in Anhui Province in 2020, clearly building a market-oriented regional ecological protection compensation model based on the ecological capacity evaluation system, so as to promote the transformation of ecological environment governance in inter-provincial border areas to systematic and institutionalized governance.

At present, the construction of ecological compensation mechanism in the Yangtze River basin is still in the exploratory stage. In the future, on the basis of summarizing successful experiences, we should continue to improve the awareness of all walks of life on the importance of ecological protection compensation, and accelerate the improvement of the ecological protection compensation system with a better combination of effective market and promising government, overall consideration of categorical compensation and comprehensive compensation, coordinated promotion of vertical compensation and horizontal compensation, and coordinated efforts of strong incentives and hard constraints based on the principle of "corresponding benefits and compensation, and matching rights and obligations". At the same time, we should grasp the integrity and correlation characteristics of the river basin, continuously improve the cross-regional ecological environment governance coordination and linkage mechanism, and work together to promote the waterfront governance and source governance, so as to ensure that the ecological barrier of the Yangtze River is further consolidated and the ecosystem service function is continuously improved.

In terms of specific practice, the first is to explore market-oriented compensation methods. Explore the path of realizing the value of ecological products led by the government, with the participation of enterprises and all sectors of society, market-oriented operation, and sustainable ecological products, improve the property rights system for natural resource assets with clear ownership, clear rights and responsibilities, strict protection, smooth circulation, and effective supervision, and explore and carry out compensation for resource development, pollutant emission reduction, water conservation, carbon emission offset, water rights trading, and ecosystem carbon sink trading. By improving the green benefit-sharing mechanism, we will encourage the exploration of hematopoietic horizontal compensation models such as counterpart cooperation, industrial transfer, talent training, and joint construction of parks between ecological protection areas and beneficiary areas.

The second is to make up for the shortcomings of the inter-regional interest compensation system. We will continue to improve the inter-regional interest compensation mechanism, and form a benign situation in which the beneficiaries pay and the protectors receive reasonable compensation. Optimizing the compensation standard is an important issue that needs to be solved urgently. In order to accurately implement the assessment of ecosystem service functions, it is necessary not only to make a scientific and reasonable quantitative assessment, but also to obtain the value weight of each function, so as to form a scientific basis for ecological protection compensation. The spatiotemporal variation characteristics of different ecosystem service functions and the particularities and differences of each region should also be fully considered, and the scientific and operable compensation standards should be ensured based on the carbon footprint and water footprint optimization standards. At the same time, it is necessary to give full consideration to the economic adaptability of ecological protection compensation, take into account the balance of interests of all parties, and make the compensation standard not only promote environmental protection, but also meet the needs of economic development.

The author is the deputy director and associate researcher of the Institute of Ecology and Sustainable Development, Jiangsu Yangtze River Economic Belt Research Institute, Nantong University