Ecological Compensation For Fishing Withdrawal From Honghu Based On Fishermen’s Willingness To Accept

The fishing ban in the main area of Yangtze River Basin is an important measure to implement the green development strategy of the Economic Belt.It will not only protect the biological resources,but also play a positive role in rebalancing the ecological.Lakes along the Yangtze River have benefited large number of fishermen,but the ban means that fishermen had to give up the original way of livelihood,which has lowered their living level,then it will affect the fairness and stability of society.In recent years,there have been some problems in the fishing ban program,such as low ecological compensation standard and single compensation pattern,which have failed to provides efficient incentives for fishermen to withdraw from fishing,so that the behaviors of illegal fishing and electric fishing have still existed.In addition,the ecological compensation for fishing ban is promoted in an administrative way which has few relevant policies.It is difficult to ensure the sustainable livelihood transition of lost lake fishermen.Ecological compensation is an important policy to encourage fishermen to protect the fish resources and water ecological environment.Basing on fishermen’s willingness to accept(WTA)will affect the implementation of the fishing ban.It is of great significance to clarify the relationship between fishermen’s cognition and attitude,WTA,and provide sustainable livelihood transition for fishermen,so as to reach an agreement on the expected goal of the fishing ban.Taking Honghu,Hubei Province as the research area,through interviews and questionnaires method,this paper explored the fishermen’s cognition about the ecological compensation for fishing ban,understanding the changes of fishermen’s WTA and ecological compensation method.Basing on the field survey date,the research uses the binary logistic regression model and optimal scale regression run to identify the key factors influencing the fishermen’s WTA and preference for ecological compensation methods.Finally,basing on fishermen’s livelihood this paper discusses the sustainable livelihood development.The results indicate that:(1)Since the implementation of the fishing ban program,Honghu fishermen have a high WTA,82.12% of the surveyed fishermen are willing to quit fishing and 17.88% of the surveyed fishermen are not willing to quit fishing.The minimum compensation which surveyed fishermen could accept CNY 21,900/a,the maximum compensation which the surveyed fishermen could accept CNY 53,400/a,and the average compensation rate CNY36,800/a.(2)Fishermen’s WTA was affected by many factors,including age,health status,family population,family labor force,fishing cost,aquaculture area,importance of Honghu ecological environment and satisfaction,purpose of the fishing ban,satisfaction with fishing ban and so on.Production characteristics and ecological cognition have a significant impact on Honghu fishermen’s WTA.Fishermen with diversified of livelihood and higher ecological cognition will be helpful for the fishing ban program.(3)The main factor of fishmen involving in this ban is the various compensation ways,such as money,goods,technology,intelligence,and policy compensation.Majority of the fishermen preferred for the comprehensive compensation,ratio was 48.33%.Each of the compensation method provides incentives factors for fishermen to withdraw from fishing.Age,education level,job,family population,cognition of the lake ecological assets and fishing ban program have vital impact on the fishermen choice of comprehensive compensation.The comprehensive compensation method would gradually fishermen change“blood transfusion type” to “blood production type”.(4)Ensuring the smooth transfer of fishermen to other industries is the key factor for the implementation of the fishing ban.The sustainable livelihood development of fishermen should meet their wishes and interest expectations.Fishermen’s preference for sustainable livelihood is aquaculture,tourism services and migrant workers,accounting for 34.33%,20%and 18.23%.In view of Honghu fishermen,it can be solved from two aspects.One is to provide entrepreneurship training for fishermen.Another is that we should vigorously develop all kinds of productive posts and increase employment opportunities for fishermen.(5)Government needs to strengthen the publicity of the fishermen’s awareness of lake ecological assets and the compensation policy for fishing ban.The compensation method is the main factor for fishermen to change their jobs.The appropriate method of ecological compensation should cater to fishermen’s interest expectations and willingness.It is suggested to provide variegated and differentiated ecological compensation methods,so that fishermen can adopt the ecological compensation method for their own needs.Strengthening fishermen’s self-development ability is the key to fundamentally build the sustainable livelihood pattern.We can regularly provide training and freshwater fishery breeding technology for fishermen.