Research Progress on Poverty Alleviation by Ecological Compensation

Institute of Land, Resources and Sustainable Development, Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, Kunming 650221, China

Abstract Ecological poverty alleviation is one of China’s accurate poverty alleviation strategies. The Guiding Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Three-year Action to Win the Fight against Poverty issued in August 2018 calls for innovating ecological poverty alleviation mechanisms, strengthening ecological protection and restoration in poor areas, and achieving a win-win situation of ecological improvement and poverty alleviation. Poverty alleviation by ecological compensation has realized the effective combination of ecological protection compensation and accurate poverty alleviation policy mechanism. Although China has achieved some practical results in ecological poverty alleviation at the policy level, the combination of ecological protection and accurate poverty alleviation and the corresponding policy measures have not yet been fully integrated. Moreover, the mode of ecological compensation for poverty alleviation is not perfect, and the corresponding operating mechanism of ecological compensation for poverty alleviation has not been fully established. This paper summarizes and expounds the present situation of ecological compensation research (including ecological compensation concept, ecological compensation mechanism, ecological compensation mode), the current situation of ecological poverty alleviation research (including the relationship between ecological compensation and poverty alleviation, ecological poverty alleviation model, ecological poverty alleviation mechanism), and then analyzes the main problems existing in the current poverty alleviation by ecological compensation. This paper puts forward the breakthrough points of establishing and perfecting ecological compensation to help the poor, so as to provide a reference basis for further promoting the development of ecological poverty alleviation.

Key words Ecological compensation, Ecological poverty alleviation, Ecological Protection, Compensation system

1 Introduction

Many concentrated poor areas in China are located in areas where the "congenital" ecological environment is fragile and the "acquired" ecological damage is serious. Therefore, they belong to the important ecological construction and ecological protection areas of the country, and bear the important task of national ecological protection, so that the two major tasks of ecological environment construction and getting rid of poverty overlap. Precisely because of the existence of this special situation, it is necessary to protect the ecological environment while carrying out poverty alleviation and development, and actively look for a win-win way of poverty alleviation and ecological protection suitable for the reality of poor mountain areas[1]. The 13th Five-year Plan on Poverty Alleviation has listed ecological poverty alleviation as one of China’s accurate poverty alleviation strategies[2]. TheGuidingOpinionsoftheCPCCentralCommitteeandtheStateCouncilonThree-yearActiontoWintheFightagainstPovertyissued in August 2018 calls for innovating ecological poverty alleviation mechanisms, strengthening ecological protection and restoration in poor areas, and achieving a win-win situation of ecological improvement and poverty alleviation. In recent years, the problem of ecological compensation and poverty alleviation in China has attracted the attention of domestic scholars, and the research results continue to emerge, but on the whole, there are still many problems.

2 Research status of ecological compensation

2.1 Study on the concept of ecological compensationThere is no concept of ecological compensation in foreign countries, and the main concepts related to ecological compensation are ecological service payment or ecological benefit payment. Most of the early studies on ecological compensation are biased towards the aspect of natural ecological compensation. Since the 1990s, more and more scholars regard ecological compensation as a more effective economic means to protect resources and environment. The purpose of compensation is to focus on the protection of and attention to ecological compensation areas. In a broad sense, it takes the ecological compensation mechanism as a means of economic promotion in order to achieve the purpose of protecting the environment. In a narrow sense, ecological compensation is a corresponding charge for the benefits of ecological resources and services to further promote regional environmental protection. Allenetal. considered that ecological compensation is the restoration or construction of ecologically damaged areas[3]. In the study of the environmental impact on expressway, Cuperus Retal. put forward the concept of ecological compensation for the first time, and defined it as a kind of subsidy in their research. Subsidies are mainly used to improve the environmental quality of damaged areas or to establish the scope of the same ecological capacity[4]. Sven Wander believes that the payment of ecological services should be a voluntary transaction behavior, with a good definition of the scope of ecological services and the supply and demand parties of ecological services[5]. The view of Engel Setal. is that ecological compensation is a principle of payment based on beneficiaries, and that government department, as one of the beneficiaries, should take the initiative to buy the ecological services provided to it by the ecosystem[6]. Gheblaw, M.S ’s point of view is that ecological compensation is actually through economic or policy incentives to achieve the unity of personal interests and social interests in the management of natural resources[7]. Nicholas P, Sisto’s point of view is that ecological compensation is to encourage ecological service providers to increase the benefits of ecological services by giving conditional payments to ecological service providers[8]. Generally speaking, ecological compensation mainly includes three fundamental types in the world: compensation for damaged ecosystems; compensation for major activities conducive to the protection of ecological resources; compensation for collectives and individuals who have suffered economic losses in order to protect ecological resources.

The understanding of the concept of ecological compensation is different in China. Scholars define ecological compensation from their subject perspective and research objectives. Ye Wenhuetal. believe that ecological compensation is to compensate for the negative externalities caused by the destruction of ecological environment to mitigate its adverse effects[9]. Lu Zhongmei defines the concept from a narrow and broad point of view: in a narrow sense, ecological compensation refers to the general terms of restoration, compensation and comprehensive control for the activities that cause damage to ecological resources and the environment; the ecological compensation in a broad sense, in addition to the ecological compensation in a narrow sense, also includes certain fund, technology or in-kind compensation for those who protect the ecological environment, as well as preferential policies and expenditure on scientific research and education.[10]. Wang Jinnan believes that ecological compensation contains at least four meanings: the compensation for the ecological environment itself; the compensation fee for the ecological environment; the compensation for abandoning development opportunities for ecological environment and behavioral protection; and the protection for the objects of great ecological value[11]. Shen Manhong defines ecological compensation as regulating the institutional arrangement of interests between ecological protectors and beneficiaries[12]. Wang Xiaoetal. define ecological compensation as protecting and improving the ecological environment, maintaining the service function of the ecosystem, achieving harmonious development between man and nature, and making use of economic, legal, administrative and other means to tax and charge individuals and groups that cause negative externalities of the ecological environment, and give corresponding economic and non-economic subsidies to individuals and groups that cause positive externalities of the ecological environment[13]. In a word, because of the complexity of ownership and interdisciplinary characteristics of ecological compensation itself, the research emphasis of different scholars is also different. However, they all follow the same research paradigm, namely first from the definition of concept and connotation, followed by the study of the mechanisms and means to promote the protection of the ecological environment and finally the study of how to realize the transformation from natural phenomena to socio-economic institutional mechanisms.

2.2 Study on the mechanism of ecological compensation

2.2.1Object and subject of ecological compensation. The service radius of ecological services can be extended from a local region to a country or even to the whole world. Compared with the compensated party, which is easier to distinguish, the payer is very vague, because the products of ecological services are invisible and cannot achieve accurate positioning. Moran and Bienabe conducted a questionnaire survey on people’s willingness to pay ecological compensation in different regions and found that Costa Ricans prefer voluntary compensation while the residents of Scotland are more inclined to participate in ecological compensation in the form of tax. All these have practical guiding significance for the formulation of ecological compensation policies in other countries[14-15]. Wang Qingjunetal. believe that ecological compensation falls within the category of public welfare, and the government is the defender of public interests, the government has the obligation to be the subject of compensation. Considering the huge amount of money required for ecological compensation, as well as the low efficiency and high cost of government departments in the compensation work, ecological compensation cannot be completely undertaken by the government departments. In view of the principle of "beneficiary compensation", individuals, social organizations, companies and governments at all levels have the responsibility and obligation to act as the subject of compensation. Under the general environment of the socialist market economy, ecological compensation through the market is the best option[16]. Ge Yanxiangetal. consider the basic factor of watershed ecological compensation in the perspective of the main body of ecological compensation to study the advantages and disadvantages for government compensation and market intervention[17].

2.2.2Value of ecological compensation. Pimentel used the combination of macro-estimation and micro-simulation to evaluate the value of biodiversity in the United States[18]. Acharya assessed the indirect value of eco-environmental services[19]. James Boyd pointed out that ecological benefit assessment played a very important role in ecological compensation, and put forward the principles and spatial analysis of ecological benefit assessment[20]. Daily pointed out that assuming that private and public institutions correctly understand the value of ecosystem services, we can invest more in natural capital. However, the assessment of ecosystem services ignores the negative benefits, environmental degradation and loss of well-being caused by depreciation of ecological consumption[21]. Hou Junqietal. evaluated the actual effect of ecological compensation on the Loess Plateau through the indexes of soil and water conservation rate, forest coverage rate and soil fertility, and considered that the environment in this area had been obviously improved[22]. Xiong Yingetal. used opportunity cost method, carbon tax law, shadow price method, replacement cost method to evaluate the value of ecological services, so as to determine the standard of compensation[23]. Jin Rongetal. and Zheng Haixiaetal. considered that the accounting standard should be based on the synthesis of many factors, such as cost, benefit, ability, time limit, growth potential, residents’ will, and morality[24-25]. Fan Xiaoshanetal. established the NSE ecosystem service function as a mathematical model in practical application, which integrated the accounting of ecological compensation fee and its cost[26]. Wang Xiaoyun determined the amount of ecological compensation according to the discount rate[27]. Li Guoping and Li Xiaoetal. used CE method to evaluate the value of ecological compensation[28]. Based on the survey data of farmers, Han Hongyun and Yu Yonghong took returning farmland to forest as an example to obtain the compensation standard through the measurement of opportunity cost and maintenance cost of returning farmland to forest, farmers’ willingness to accept (WTA) and ecological value contribution, respectively[29].

2.2.3Standard of ecological compensation. Foreign scholars usually use ecosystem service function value method, opportunity cost method, investigation method, simulation method and so on for formulation of ecological compensation standards. For example, the PES Project in Costa Rica sets compensation rates based on the opportunity cost of forests[30]; the subsidy criteria for the Nicaraguan Pastoral System Project are measured on the basis of the value generated by the best land use of farmers[31]; the United States Environmental Quality Incentive Program uses the standard of agreement between potential beneficiaries and producers as its compensation standard[32]; the New York Watershed Management Project uses the cost of the best operating activities as the basis for compensation[33]. Taking afforestation as an example, the effect of ecological compensation was studied. The study found that the higher the standard of subsidy, the higher the opportunity cost, but the standard of subsidy had nothing to do with the function of ecological services[34]. How to accurately determine the compensation standard is also the focus of many scholars. They think that the standard of compensation should take into account such factors as the degree of acceptance of residents, the benefits of ecological environment and whether it is feasible or not. The accounting standard should be based on the synthesis of many factors, such as cost, benefit, ability, time limit, growth potential, residents’ will, and morality. Qin Yanhongetal. believe that compensation should be divided into H levels according to the theory of opportunity cost. The first level is basic compensation; the second level is structural adjustment compensation; level H is spillover compensation[32]. However, the practice shows that the compensation standard established by these methods is on the low side, which cannot form an effective and lasting incentive to the ecological protection behavior. If other methods (such as carbon tax, shadow price, opportunity cost,etc.) are used, it will lead to overvaluation, thus creating an over-subsidy policy environment. Therefore, at present, the commonly used compensation standard in China is based on accounting, which is reached through consultation. Li Wenhuaetal. studied the ecological compensation of forests. Through the study, they believed that the establishment of compensation standards should take into account the service value of forest ecosystem, the opportunity cost and direct input of conservators[35]. The object of ecological compensation should be set up in Guangxi Nature Reserve, and it was put forward that the establishment of ecological compensation standard should take into account the cost of ecological protection, loss cost and subsequent benefits. At the same time, they believe that the realization of fair compensation must be based on the above three factors and complemented by the use of WTA and TPW technology to achieve the effect[36].

2.3 Study on the mode of ecological compensationEcological compensation mode is the way and method to realize ecological compensation, which has been deeply studied and analyzed by scholars at home and abroad. Both Chomitzetal. and Tognetti put forward that there were many problems in the practice of ecological compensation with government purchase as the main body. Some of these problems are currently difficult to solve, while at the same time new forms of compensation continue to emerge[37-38]. Scherretal. proposed that the government procurement model was still the main way to pay for eco-environmental services all over the world[39]. This paper makes a statistical study on the residents’ willingness to pay for ecological compensation by combining the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) with the questionnaire survey method. The results show that residents have strong willingness to pay for ecology by means of income tax compensation. In the study of comparing the two payment methods of government payment project and user payment project, it is proposed that the user payment project is more efficient than the government payment project. However, this requires clearly defined property rights, relatively low transaction costs and relatively perfect laws and regulations as the prerequisite, otherwise we can only choose government-paid projects. User-paid projects have smaller size, more flexible and diverse payment methods, and relatively clear compensation targets. As a result, the conditionality of payments is relatively better, while government-paid projects are just the opposite. The sources of funding for paid projects for ecological services are analyzed. The results show that the government-led compensation method is the largest provider of funds for ecological service projects, while the funds from resource users account for less than 3% of the total amount. This paper makes a comparative analysis of the ways of ecological compensation from the perspective of institutional theory, and holds that in theory, the payment of ecological services is to solve environmental problems by means of market-oriented compensation. However, a large number of case studies show that the payment of ecological services is highly dependent on government participation. There are two main reasons, one is that the property rights of land need to be defined by the government, and this is the key to the realization of paid services. Second, the transaction cost of ecological service payment is usually high, there is a great need for the government to take the lead to establish a fair market, in this context, the buyer of ecological service payment is usually the government public organization. This paper systematically analyzes and studies the role and influence of market forces in the process of water extraction, delivery and water price formation, and points out that market-oriented ecological compensation is an important development mode of ecological compensation in the future.

In the selection and comparative analysis of government compensation and market compensation, considering the external factors of resources and environment, the shortcomings of the market itself and the uniqueness of ecological construction, ecological compensation should be dominated by government compensation. The ways of ecological compensation in China can be divided into two categories, government compensation and market compensation, and the concepts of the two methods are defined. You Yanxin believes that government compensation and market compensation should be organically combined to promote strengths and avoid weaknesses and give full play to their advantages. The mixed mechanism of ecological compensation should be formed by taking the market transaction as the compensation channel, the government as the main body of the transaction and the government financial funds as the compensation funds. It should be pointed out that water right trading in the field of watershed ecological compensation is a kind of typical mixed compensation[40]. Tan Qiucheng believes that in addition to the traditional government compensation and market compensation, ecological compensation should also include intra-community compensation, because ecological services may only occur within the community, and the relevant stakeholders are only community members[41]. In this case, the right to the use of ecological resources can be used as a trading object to carry out market-oriented transactions among community members, so as to improve the efficiency of the use of ecological services. In the watershed ecological compensation, in addition to the common government compensation and market compensation, it should also cover the compensation dominated by non-governmental organizations. In the way of ecological compensation involving community participation, the current commonly used government compensation and market compensation cannot fully reflect the basic "people-oriented" and "negotiation resources" requirements of ecological compensation. The ways of social compensation include non-governmental organization participation compensation and environmental liability insurance. It is considered that in the watershed ecological compensation, government compensation, market compensation and social compensation should be used flexibly to effectively improve the efficiency of ecological compensation. The impact of ecological compensation on farmers’ livelihood strategies points out that if agriculture is used as a livelihood strategy, it tends to choose material and technological ecological compensation. If non-agriculture is used as a livelihood strategy, it is inclined to choose ecological compensation in the form of policy and capital. The wetland ecological compensation methods under different wetland protection modes are studied, and the effects of "blood transfusion" and "blood making" compensation methods on wetland ecological compensation are studied. Through the comparative analysis of the relevant research and practice of horizontal ecological compensation at home and abroad, the research group of the National Institute of Macro-Economics Research Institute points out that we should give full play to the positive role of horizontal ecological compensation and gradually expand its scope and field[42]. The compensation mechanism of horizontal ecological protection should be established to regulate the interest relationship between regions which are closely related to the ecological environment but do not have the administrative subordinate relationship with each other.

3 Research on ecological poverty alleviation

3.1 Relationship between ecological compensation and poverty alleviationThere is an interactive relationship between the growth of the poor population and environmental degradation, and for the increase in poverty, on the one hand, they can get the opportunity to naturally increase the likelihood of environmental damage; on the other hand, as a result of the environmental damage caused by natural disasters, some people have returned to poverty as a result of the disaster. Using the existing data of the protected area, it analyzes what factors lead to win-win or lose-lose under the dimension of economic compensation. It is found that in order to achieve a win-win situation between the two, it will require an effective management policy environment for both sides to win, otherwise there will be losses between the two. Using the method of data envelopment analysis to study the efficiency of management and poverty alleviation in each region, it is found that under the condition of low efficiency in each region, the inefficiency of each region is adjusted by effectively imitating the social management at the regional policy level. It has also improved the efficiency of poverty alleviation.

TheOutlineofRuralPovertyAlleviationandDevelopmentinChinaclearly states: in the poor areas of China, we should continue to implement key ecological restoration projects, such as returning farmland to animal husbandry, returning farmland to forests and grassland, and rocky desertification control, so as to restore the ecological environment of our country. In the whole process of social and economic interaction, we should always implement the concept that "green water and green mountains are golden mountains"[43]. In the process of ecological compensation, we should focus on the protection of biodiversity in poor areas. From the perspective of development, it is difficult for poor areas to maintain a high rate of growth. The extent to which the ecological environment of these areas has been damaged has led them to fall into the trap of a vicious circle of poverty. In the process of ecological protection in China, the right to use and develop resources in poor areas has been restricted to varying degrees, and the local economic and social development is slow. From the perspective of the overall situation, the whole country has a good ecological environment to limit the development of these poor areas, so that they have lost their own economic interests. We should establish and improve the ecological compensation mechanism in China, focus on the implementation of poverty alleviation and development policies in contiguous poor areas in China, and constantly restore and maintain the benign development of the ecological environment under the ecological compensation mechanism. At the same time, we should strengthen the ecological compensation for the key ecological functional areas. The relationship between human survival activities and ecosystem is the core of sustainable development science. If there is a scientific design of ecological compensation mechanism in the ecological service system, it can not only improve the interests of ecological service providers and beneficiaries, but also skillfully solve the problem of relationship between externality and "public pond". Poverty alleviation and development and ecological compensation originally belong to two unrelated research areas, but with the progress of poverty alleviation and development work, how to make farmers who cannot rely on their own labor to become rich on the spot has become the difficulty of poverty alleviation and development. On the other hand, with the study of ecological compensation, ecological compensation has been more and more recognized by all sectors of society, especially the contribution to the protection of ecological environment in the deep poor areas of the central and western regions is very important. From the national level, there should be transfer income to reward this positive externality in order to meet the fairness of income. Therefore, poverty alleviation and development and ecological compensation have a junction, and it is an effective way to solve the problem of poverty alleviation. Ecological compensation not only provides support for poverty alleviation and development, but also provides practical opportunities for ecological compensation.

3.2 Model of ecological poverty alleviationThe main ecological way to help the poor is to develop ecological agriculture and ecological industry. First of all, ecologists should play an important role in poverty alleviation. They can use the corresponding ecological theories and tools to improve the efficiency of poverty alleviation. Then irrigation canal is proposed to improve agricultural productivity, through ecological poverty alleviation, it can better help residents to fundamentally improve poverty, and as far as possible to reduce the follow-up adverse effects caused by poverty alleviation measures. Finally, it is proposed to develop ecological industry, provide clean water and sustainable energy, reduce the burden of disease and enhance the resilience of ecosystem to natural disasters. Fisher B constructs the conceptual framework of ecosystem services and human welfare, discusses the significance of ecological protection to human well-being, and discusses how to realize the effective use of resources and reduce the occurrence of poverty in the process of ecological protection. The impact of the protection of ecosystem services on the welfare of poor farmers has been focused on[44]. Antonio A R Zoris studied the importance of collaborative interaction in ecosystem poverty alleviation, conducted research on poverty alleviation in the Amazon basin in Bolivia and Brazil on the other side of the planet, found that a large number of investment and assistance projects of government and international cooperation have not achieved the desired results. The poor believe that their own backwardness cannot be solved, but the scholar believes that local poverty can be improved through interaction between the Amazon ecosystem and groups[45]. The research contribution made by domestic scholars to the ecological poverty alleviation model mainly lies in the construction of each subsystem of ecological poverty alleviation. The most important thing is the construction of ecological industry. In terms of ecological agriculture, Wang Zhenyi believes that as long as the government strictly controls the ecological threshold value, controls it above or equal to the ecologically irreversible threshold value, and combines the local ecological resources with the poverty alleviation policy of agricultural industrialization, to achieve good results in poverty alleviation[46]. In order to realize the sustainable economic development of Longshan County, Fu Aibin put forward that it is necessary to cultivate leading enterprises, enhance base construction and realize the brand of characteristic agriculture. In the aspect of ecological industry, Li Huimin discussed the process of county industrialization from the point of view of ecological civilization, and put forward that it is necessary to change the economic mode of industrial development, reasonably adjust the industrial structure and carry out the model of "industrial park"[48]. Li Qian believes that the Baihe County industry can be developed from the recovery governance model, ecological enterprise model, eco-industrial park[49]. In the field of ecotourism, scholars have been committed to studying the interaction between poverty alleviation and tourism.

From the 19th century to the present, the relevant research has always believed that tourism poverty alleviation is the best way to get rid of poverty, and the main representative scholars are Gao Shunli, Ning Dehuang and so on.

3.3 Study on the mechanism of ecological poverty alleviationThe construction of ecological poverty alleviation mechanism is the guarantee of ecological poverty alleviation. In the aspect of regional cooperation to help the poor, this paper puts forward the cooperative supply model of regional public goods, and thinks that it is a new way of thinking of regional anti-poverty. The governance model of "cross-regional cooperation and pluralistic coordination", regional cooperation to help the poor can achieve resource complementarity to further improve the efficiency of poverty alleviation. In terms of ecological compensation, Sun Xianbin and other scholars have studied the problems between poverty alleviation and ecological compensation in Jinshanzhai of the Dabie Mountains, and believe that ecological compensation is an effective means of poverty alleviation and can solve the contradiction between environmental protection and economic development. It can also promote the development of local ecological industry and environmental protection industry[50]. Through the construction of farmers’ income expansion production function, using the balanced panel data analysis, it is concluded that the impact of the project of returning farmland to forest is proportional to the income of farmers, returning farmland to forest can not only protect the environment but also objectively promote the transfer of labor force. Ecological compensation mechanism is the institutional guarantee of ecological poverty alleviation, and the benign operation of ecological mechanism can be used to promote ecological poverty alleviation. In terms of ecological migration, the sustainable development of ecological migration in the contiguous extremely poor areas can create good conditions and reliable guarantee for restoring ecology and getting rid of poverty and becoming rich in this area. Ecological relocation is an important project and a key breakthrough in poverty alleviation and development. The implementation of the poverty alleviation ecological migration project is a fundamental solution to the problem of poverty in particularly poor areas of Guangxi.

Through the research of domestic scholars, we can see that ecological migration is conducive to the restoration and reconstruction of the natural ecosystem in this region, to improving the living conditions of migrants, and to reducing the resistance of ecological poverty alleviation.

4 Main problems

Although the practice of poverty alleviation by ecological compensation in China has achieved certain results, from the existing pilot practice, there are still many problems that cannot be ignored.

4.1 Low accuracy of object recognitionIn general, the poor farmers caused by protecting the ecological environment from damage and giving up relying on the traditional economic development model, are the target of poverty alleviation by ecological compensation. These farmers who make ecological contribution should be compensated for the direct cost of ecological protection and the loss of opportunity cost of development. However, in the actual process of poverty alleviation by ecological compensation, there is often a deviation in the targeting of compensation objects, resulting in the unobvious effect of poverty alleviation. For example, in order to ensure the effective development of the natural forest ecological protection project, the surrounding farmers give up the traditional forest mining, planting economic crops under the forest and other ways to obtain economic income, they should get economic compensation to maintain their livelihood. However, due to the inaccurate identification of the poor, the project compensation issued is mainly used as the wages of forestry management and protection personnel, and the surrounding farmers are still trapped in poverty. Ecological compensation is implemented according to the principle of "compensation to beneficiary, payment by polluter", and most of the compensation objects are ecological protectors such as the government, and residents. On the other hand, poverty alleviation and development takes "the rural population who is lower than the standard of poverty alleviation and has the ability to work" as the main helping object, and the two are different in the orientation of the target object. The poverty alleviation by ecological compensation neglects the accurate identification of poverty objects in the process of coordination between the two, resulting in the reduction of the efficiency of poverty alleviation by ecological compensation, it is difficult to achieve the desired poverty alleviation effect. The poverty alleviation by ecological compensation has not yet established the identification mechanism of compensation objects, so that the scope of compensation objects and the use of compensation funds have been expanded, resulting in the unobvious poverty reduction effect. In addition, there is also a lack of identification of the effect of poverty alleviation by ecological compensation, whether the compensation funds are really implemented, whether the compensation objects really get benefits cannot be accurately known.

4.2 Unreasonable establishment of compensation standards

The unification and formalization of compensation standards facilitate the development of government projects, but ignore the heterogeneity of economic development, geographical location and ecological environment in poor areas, so it is easy to form a "one-size-fits-all" form of compensation standards. At present, it is difficult to estimate the value of ecosystem services, and there is no unified requirement for accounting standards. Ecological resources and ecological environment have the characteristics of public goods, returning farmland to forest, returning farmland to grassland, prohibiting or restricting the development of water resources and other ecological projects, cause the surrounding farmers to sacrifice local interests for the overall interests of ecological protection. On the other hand, it is difficult to measure the ecological contribution made by poor farmers, and it is difficult to formulate a perfect compensation standard. In addition, there are differences in standard setting between poor ecosystem service value providers and ecological beneficiaries, and there are great differences in the level of cognition between the two sides due to the different evaluation indicators and needs of the ecological environment. To a certain extent, it makes it more difficult to set the standard. The ecological compensation standard is set to be too low, and the input and income of poor ecological protectors are out of balance, which intensifies the contradiction between them and ecological beneficiaries, thus reducing the enthusiasm of ecological protectors to protect ecology. For example, the compensation standard for public welfare forests in Guangxi is 225 yuan/ha per year, while the average rent for forest land is 750 yuan/ha per year. In some areas, it is even as high as 900 to 1200 yuan, the income level of public welfare forest management is far less than the income level of rental forest land. The interests of forest farmers cannot be satisfied, and the contradiction between ecological protection and economic development is prominent, which seriously deviates from the goal of poverty alleviation by ecological compensation in ecological protection.

4.3 Lack of "blood making" function in compensation mode

The poverty alleviation by ecological compensation is in the exploratory stage. Under the background of no corresponding special compensation funds, various localities mainly carry out poverty alleviation by ecological compensation through the direct cash subsidy of ecological compensation. The amount of external "blood transfusion" will directly affect the accuracy and coverage of poverty relief work in poor areas. After the interruption of "blood transfusion", it is easy to return to poverty. It can be seen that this "blood transfusion" cash compensation method is lacking in effective "blood making" function, which is not a long-term solution. The way of "giving a man a fish" can only play a temporary poverty alleviation effect, but the intellectual compensation of "teaching people to fish" has not yet attracted great attention. The direct cash subsidy sources of ecological compensation are relatively simple, most of which are directly allocated by the central and local governments. The participation of non-governmental organizations and social organizations is low, and the ecological beneficiaries do not pay the corresponding price. In addition, the poor ecological protectors lack the consideration of their own permanent poverty relief, and the endogenic motivation to get rid of poverty is insufficient, so that the "blood transfusion" compensation cannot have the effect of "blood making". In the process of project compensation, there is a lack of awareness to transform ecological advantage into economic advantage, which hinders the transformation of poverty alleviation by ecological compensation from "relief" to "development". There is a contradiction between the long-term and comprehensive nature of ecological protection and the timeliness of poverty. Direct cash compensation only plays a short-term role in the work of ecological compensation. After the interruption of compensation funds, whether poor households can have sustainable livelihood capacity under the premise of protecting the ecological environment is still an important issue that cannot be ignored in poverty alleviation by ecological compensation.

5 Establishing and perfecting the breakthrough point of ecological compensation and poverty alleviation

Accurate identification of the compensation object of poverty alleviation by ecological compensation is the primary task to carry out poverty alleviation by ecological compensation. In view of the above problems, it is necessary to accurately aim at the compensation object, establish and improve the identification mechanism, and further do a good job in ecological poverty alleviation.

5.1 Whether poor areas meet the requirements of ecological compensationPoor areas are generally distributed in areas rich in ecological resources and areas with fragile ecological environment. The reason for poverty in ecological resource-rich areas lies in the limitation of national development policy and the influence of traditional leading industry development model, the development and use of resources is inefficient, and economic development is hindered. Ecological fragility and lack of environmental carrying capacity are important factors leading to poverty in ecologically fragile areas. Backward infrastructure construction, inconvenient transportation and frequent natural disasters seriously hinder regional economic development. These two typical areas shouldering the important task of ecological protection meet the requirements of poverty alleviation by ecological compensation.

5.2 Whether the poor are eligible for ecological compensationThrough field research, interviews and other means, we can identify poor households in line with the national poverty alleviation standards. Assessment criteria can be based on ecological compensation poverty alleviation with poor households to participate in ecological protection projects or take positive actions to reduce ecological damage. It is not to include all the poor households in the scope of compensation, but to focus on the poor ecological protectors who contribute to the protection of the ecological environment or reduce ecological damage in poor areas. For the poor farmers who fall into poverty in order to protect the ecological public welfare forest, the poor farmers who move because of the protection of drinking water sources, wetland protected areas and important scenic construction areas should be included in the compensation object system of poverty alleviation by ecological compensation. It is necessary to ensure that poor households receive corresponding economic compensation in the process of creating ecological benefits, it meets the requirements of "accurate objects of poverty alleviation", and takes the first step of "ecological compensation to get rid of poverty".

5.3 Dynamic adjustment of compensation standardIt is urgent to reasonably promote the effective development of poverty alleviation by ecological compensation, and it is urgent to innovate and apply the dynamic compensation standard of poverty alleviation by ecological compensation. Because of the heterogeneity of regional development, the formulation of compensation standards should also have certain differences. The standard formulation of poverty alleviation by ecological compensation should take into account not only the ecological situation of poor areas, economic development demand, price change index and other factors, but also the ecological protection cost and development opportunity cost of poor ecological protectors. For the areas where it is easy to estimate the ecological value, the compensation standard can be established according to the ecological value. If it is difficult to estimate the ecological value, the compensation standard can be established through consultation and cooperation between the poor ecological protector and the ecological beneficiary. It is necessary to appropriately improve the standard of poverty alleviation by ecological compensation, maintain the dynamic adjustment of the compensation standard, and ensure the effectiveness of poverty alleviation by ecological compensation. The setting of compensation standards should avoid unification and standardization, and the standards should be set within a range, so that all localities can make timely adjustments according to the actual needs of the work. The estimated results of ecological value can be used as the upper limit of ecological compensation standard, and the loss of development opportunity can be used as the lower limit of compensation standard. This dynamic adjustment compensation standard can effectively ensure the scientificity and rationality of poverty alleviation by ecological compensation.