Study On The Economical Compensation For The Cropland Conversion To Forest And Grassland

Based on environmental economics and public economics, with the practice of the Cropland Conversion to Forest and Grassland (CCFG) in China, through normative analysis and case study, four main respects involved in economical compensation problem of the CCFG are studied, namely the nature, the payer and the receiver, the method, and the standard and time frameworks of the compensation. This thesis also aims at providing suggestions and decsion-making references for decision-makers. The CCFG is a kind of economical activity with positive externality, its final products offered -the ecological benefits belong to the pure public goods, the nature of the economical compensation is to internalize the externality of the CCFG, so an economical compensation mechanism should be established with the government playing a leading role. The compensation receivers should be not only peasant households but also the county-level authority that performs the project. Besides central government, the compensation payers should still include the provincial-level governments who implement the project, the provincial-level governments of those beneficiary areas of midstream and downstream of basin, international organizations, enterprises and individuals, etc. Multiple channels of raising funds for the program should be worked out and the practice method should be transformed. Thediversified compensation ways should be chosen. In reality, insufficient compensation is the normality, the cost compensation may have more maneuverability. The decision-maker should carry on proper adjustment to the compensation standard, taking into account the factors about the environment conditions, the social-economic conditions, the ecological function of vegetation, etc. and make out different compensation criterions for different areas and different levels. The author puts forward it should be kept the policy of financial subsidies to the farmers who reforest ecological forest for a long term, should prolong the compensation time frameworks to the farmers who reforest economical forest. Meanwhile, the public finance should be the main source for the economical compensation of the CCFG in China at present, but it is necessary to introduce competition mechanism and explore market-based approach (such as independent agreement and forest carbon sequestration trade )in concrete operation.