Ethnic Minority Region Ecological Compensation Mechanism Research

Nature reserves in minority areas play an important role in soil and water conservation, land desertification controlling, biodiversity conservation and so on. Ecological migrants are not only direct participants of ecological and environmental protection, but also are interest-related parties of ecosystem services. However, the loss of these immigrants is not fully compensated or just partially compensated, which seriously affects the social stability and economic development in minority areas. Therefore, the establishment of eco-compensation systems in minority areas has extremely important realistic meanings.Compensation subject, compensation standard and compensation modes are three core issues in the ecological compensation, which are closely related to compensation effect in nature reserves. By summarizing the concept of ecological compensation, theoretical basis, compensation methods, compensation types and compensation modes, the current study analyzed the driving factors caused the above weakness of ecological compensation, including the lack of scientific and systematic research methods and other issues leading to an inadequate compensation. On the basis of the above analysis, we carried out a compensation mechanism study. Impact factor matrix and expert scoring method were utilized to identify the responsibility entity in eco-compensation. Based on the theory of ecological footprint and ecosystem services theory, this study explores a reasonable compensation standard. Especially, the loss of ecosystem services (forestry, animal husbandry, sideline production, firewood, water, etc.) and the loss of social capital due to immigration were included in the compensation standard. National traditional life, culture, and other factors will definitely affect the eco-compensation effection in minority areas. Aiming to slove difficulties often appeared in eco-compensation cases in minority areas, the current study also proposed a compensation mode that improves the immigrants’adaptability.To verify the adaptability of the proposed compensation mechanism, the Urad Haloxylon Forest-Mongolian Wild Ass National Nature Reserve in Inner Mongolia was taken as an example. Some advice was given with respect to the analysis results. Results indicate that local enterprises are also responable for eco-compensation in this region. We proposed a shift from the unidirectional compensation mode (government�'immigrants) to bidirectional compensation mode (government�'immigrants←enterprises). The least compensation standard is recommended as36998RMB yuan per capital (based on ecosystems services changes) and the largest compensation standard is recommended as44,546RMB yuan per capital (based on ecological footprints changes) for ecological immigrants. The compensation stand calculated through ecological contribution is recommended as18,262yuan/capital. The compensation stand calculated through ecological footprint changes is recommended as25,810yuan/capital; The compensation stand calculated by direct loss is recommended as1,424yuan/a; The compensation stand calculated by the increases of living cost is recommended as3,455yuan/a; The compensation stand calculated by the loss of opportunity cost is recommended as13,333yuan/a and the proposed compensation standard based on the loss of social resources is commended as524yuan/a. Various factors including funds, in-kind, policies, intelligence and culture should be considerd in a valid compensation mode.The difference between immigrants’ecological footprint and local people’s ecological footprint was utilized to identify the compensation standard. Through the above innovative methods, efficiency and fairness can be balanced in the eco-compensation, and the new compensation mode that considered psychological characteristics and culture features will cater for the real demands of immigrants. Technology acceptance model (TAM) was introduced to evaluate the effectiveness of eco-compensation mechanism from perceived of use and perceived ease of use.