Review and prospect of watershed ecological protection compensation

Watershed ecological protection compensation is an important part of China's ecological civilization construction. A systematic review on watershed ecological protection compensation at home and abroad can provide scientific support for practical exploration. Based on clarifying the characteristics of watershed ecological protection compensation, this paper conducts a literature review and research prospect of watershed ecological protection compensation from the aspects of compensation mechanism and benefits. The results show that: (1) The fluidity of water, the "three-life" attributes of water resources, and the complexity of ecosystem are typical characteristics of watershed ecological protection compensation. They identify the key research points as multi-stakeholder game analysis, compensation standard calculation, and compensation benefit assessment. (2) While research on mechanisms of watershed ecological protection compensation has developed mature methods for calculating compensation standards, these approaches often have limited practical applicability. The studies on the stakeholders' behaviors mainly focus on inter-governmental games, but pay little attention to other stakeholders and related incentives. Research into the benefits of watershed ecological protection compensation includes ecological-environmental benefits and economic-social benefits. However, the evaluation indicators of the studies on the ecological-environmental benefits are relatively single, and the results of the studies on the economic-social benefits remain controversial. (3) For future research on watershed ecological protection compensation, this paper recommends a multi-pronged approach, including the development of practice-oriented compensation standards, in-depth analysis of multi-stakeholder behaviors, expanded evaluation perspectives on compensation benefits, as well as greater attention to policy synergy effects.