Study On Marketing Of Watershed Services Of Forests

Hydrological services are the most directly relevant to human beings among variousenvironmental services provided by forest. Along with the increase of population,development of economy, and environmental pollution, watershed services of forests havebecome scarce economic resources. In recent years, a lot of countries in the world began topay much attention in promoting watershed services through market approaches. Marketregulation of the benefit distribution between the providers and beneficiaries of watershedservices of forests actually internalized the exterior economic properties of forest ecologicalbenefits. Based on Forest Ecology, Natural Resource and Environmental Economics, etc., thispaper analyzed the economic properties of watershed services of forests, the form ofcompensation for watershed services of forests, and the advantages and risks of market supplyof watershed services by markets. On the basis of review of domestic and overseasexperiences, this paper discussed the driving forces, market factors, market patterns, andmarket operation mechanisms in watershed service markets.The major conclusions include:●The huge demands for watershed services of forests are the basis of marketing;●The scarcity of watershed services enables them to be supplied through markets;●For the supply of watershed services by markets, a series of difficulties have to beovercome, such as the definition of services, the identification of providers and beneficiariesof services, collection of necessary information, multiple financing approaches, and necessaryinstitutional supports;●There is much potential for marketing of watershed services of forests in China, thusit is feasible in some circumstances.●The markets of watershed services in China are primarily in the pattern ofgovernment purchase, while purchase by private sectors only takes place in a part of areas.Therefore, this paper presented the following proposals about the policies in marketing ofwatershed services of forests in China:●To raise the legal status of environmental service of forests; ●Increase the payment standards for forest ecological benefits in China;●To incorporate public payment with market payment;●To foster the mechanisms of social monitoring;●Forest ownership reform.The major achievements of the paper include:●Systematic analysis of the economic characteristics and the encashment approaches ofwatershed service of forests;●To systematically summarize the characteristics and operation mechanisms of themarkets of watershed services of forests;●In-depth analysis of the potential and feasibility of china' s markets of watershedservices of forests;●To present the market models of watershed services of forests, which are suitable forChina's current situations.