Southwest Mountain Water Sources, Ecological Compensation Study

Establishing the mechanism of Payment for Ecosystem Service has been an important content of environmental protection in China. According to the present research and practice in PES, there is still an absence on a complete policy system and mechanism on PES. Some specific law or regulation is still not provided. Mountains of Southwest China are the key barrier for ecosystem conservation in China, which is responsible for protection biodiversity and water resources of several main rivers in China. The conservation of mountains of Southwest China will influence the development of large region in downstream. Meanwhile, the region in upstream can not get reasonable compensation when they do the great effort in conservation. With the overuse of nature resource during a long term, the ecosystem of upstream has started to degenerate quickly. Therefore, it is necessary to establish appropriate mechanism of Payment for Ecosystem Service in Mountains of Southwest China. Based on the case study in Pingwu, this thesis wants to provide some useful recommendations for the research on Payment for Ecosystem Services in Mountains of Southwest China.The content of this thesis has three parts. The first part includes two chapters, one is introduction of the background, significance, frame and possible innovations, and the other is the dissertation of relevant theories, which provide necessary theoretic support for this thesis.The second part includes the third and forth chapter, which is the main part of this thesis. The third chapter introduces the relevant policies on Payment for Ecosystem Service in China, presents the practices in some regions, analyzes the main problems on mechanism of PES in China and gives recommendations that it is necessary to establish PES mechanism based on different background. The forth chapter analyzes the importance of establishing PES mechanism in Mountains of Southwest China and emphasizes the procedure of establishing water payment mechanism according to the case study in Pingwu.The third part includes the fifth chapter and the conclusion. The fifth chapter is the suggestion part, which provides the recommendations for how to establish PES mechanism in Mountains of Southwest China. The last chapter gives a conclusion and deficiency for this thesis.