From “blood transfusion” to “hematopoiesis”: watershed eco-compensation in China

At present, the number of watershed eco-compensations in China is increasing. And the area covered by a single project is also increasing. Under the current model, governments are the primary source of funding. It is difficult to meet the growing funding gap of subsidies. Researches on watershed eco-compensation need to reform and explore a new model for it, expand the fund source of watershed eco-compensation expense, and establish a sustainable “hematopoietic” model. This paper clarifies the concept of watershed eco-compensation and then compares the design principles of eco-compensation projects, definitions of stakeholders, analysis, and summary of watershed eco-compensation models in different regions. It can be found that the model in which the government dominates is still the mainstream. However, the considerable cost of this model will be a heavy burden for governments. Therefore, it becomes an important option to involve more stakeholders in these projects, and governments should transfer part of the lead to dilute costs. How to reduce the expenditures of governments in watershed eco-compensation projects under the premise of maintaining normal operation of the projects has become an important exploration direction concerning watershed eco-compensation in China, which requires transforming from “blood transfusion” to “hematopoiesis.”