Study On The Compensation System Of Forest Ecological Benefits In China

Forest resources have overall ecological, economic and social benefits. In particular, itsecological benefit is far over the economic benefit gained by providing raw products such astimber. Therefore, forests are important national resources and properties. However, in recentyears, due to global warming, the ecological environments are degraded, forest coverage ratesare decreased, and land desertification is intensified. Therefore, it is urgent to focus on thecompensation system of forest ecological benefit in China. The establishment and refinementof this system would promote the sustainable environmental protection for China. Based onthe substantial literature search, the study focuses on compensation system of forestecological benefit. We defined the concepts of forest ecological benefit and its compensation,and analyzed the theoretical foundations for establishing the compensation system of forestecological benefit in China from the perspectives of the externality of forest resources, thepublic properties theory, the ecological security and justice theory, and the sustainabledevelopment theory. Foreign legislation on the forest ecological benefit compensation and itsadvanced experiences in marketing would provide useful information for the establishment ofrelated systems. These include:(1) establishing a complete legal system;(2) developing goodmanagement and supervision systems;(3) founding diverse compensation mechanisms; and(4) setting up widespread participation and incentive systems for the public. We analyzed thepolices and laws with respect to current compensation system of forest ecological benefit inChina and figured out some problems including:(1) related laws are scattered andsystematization is missed;(2) effective supervisions on funds operation are lacked;(3) thecompensation fund sources are relatively unitary;(4) compensation standard is not uniformand the values are low; and (5) the enthusiasm of public participation is not high.To improve the compensation system of forest ecological benefit, we proposed severalstrategies including:(1) to carry out the strategy of ruling the country by law and improve theexisting laws. The two present relevant laws,“Environmental Protection Law of the People’sRepublic of China” and “Forestry Law of the People’s Republic of China”, should be revisedsince they were established and issued under the background of planned economy, and wasnot any more suitable for the present economic and social development any more.Furthermore, a new law which may be termed as “Law of Forest ecological benefit Compensation” is needed as a specific law on various aspects of the forest ecological benefitcompensation in terms of compensation basis, object scope, compensation standard, as wellas the utilization, supervision and legal responsibility of compensation funds;(2) we shouldintroduce motivating mechanisms such as preferential taxation, project support andpolicy-based lending, and establish horizontal-transferring-payment funding system forforestry ecological compensation. We should fulfill public participation system andencourage the public to participate in environmental protection decision, the supervision andthe ecological and environmental construction through propagation, education and training;and (3) we should improve right relieving and law responsibility affixation system, andprotect the people’s rights of legal administrative review and administrative litigation. Thosewho break laws should be blamed and legal rights should be protected.