Research progress and prospect of the interaction between watershed eco-compensation and sustainable livelihoods of rural residents

As an ecosystem composed of natural and human elements, a watershed is a geographical area that maintains the balance within its ecosystem. It is also an area of highly sensitive relationship between anthropogenic impacts and the associated environment. A healthy watershed ecosystem is the basis for the survival and sustainable livelihoods of rural residents in the watershed. It can also provide ecological services that meet the requirements of nature and people. The eco-compensation of a watershed and sustainable livelihoods of its rural residents, is an organic whole that is interconnected and infiltrated. Only through the effective interaction of the two, can the ecosystem service function of the basin improve, and the sustainable economic and social development of the basin be promoted. This study systematically organizes and displays the development context of research results on the interaction between watershed eco-compensation and sustainable livelihoods of rural residents. The results of the study showed that: (1) Research on the interaction between watershed eco-compensation and sustainable livelihoods of rural residents is becoming increasingly abundant. Additionally, existing research focuses mainly on time or space cross-section,while the analyses on the process, characteristic and mechanism of the interaction between the two are rarely carried out from a time series perspective. It is urgent to study the interaction between them. (2) Considering both ecological civilization strategy and rural revitalization strategy proposed by Chinese Government, the overall system concept and the collaborative "win-win" idea should be used to understand the logic, process, effect and mechanism of the interaction between watershed eco-compensation and sustainable livelihoods of rural residents. It is necessary to explore an approach to a sustainable livelihood of rural residents within the spatial context of the basin, which can improve their self-development ability and achieve their self-sustainable livelihood outputs. (3) In response to new problems from the interaction between watershed eco-compensation and the sustainable livelihoods of rural residents, it has become necessary to strengthen "socio-economicalization" research on watershed eco-compensation, as well as "geographicalization" research on the sustainable livelihoods of residents in the watershed. The cross-integration of geography, economics, environmental science, ecology, sociology, demographics, catchment management and other disciplines factors, are inevitable in the interactive research of the two. The research results provide a scientific basis for alleviating the contradiction between the economic and social development of the watershed, and the ecological protection of the environment, and thereafter improving the function of the watershed ecosystem and promoting sustainable development of the watershed.