Optimizing the Compensation Standard of Cultivated Land Protection Based on Ecosystem Services in the Hangzhou Bay Area, China

Hua Li, Dan Su, Yu Cao, Jiayi Wang and Yu Cao
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Hua Li: Department of Land Management, School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Dan Su: Department of Land Management, School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Yu Cao: Department of Land Management, School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Jiayi Wang: Department of Land Management, School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Yu Cao: Department of Land Management, School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 4, 1-18

Abstract: The significant positive externality of cultivated land ecosystem services leads to the low comparative benefit of cultivated land utilization and then causes practical problems such as the abandonment and non-agriculturalization of the cultivated land, which poses a threat to China’s food security. The existing protection system only focuses on the quantity requirement and food production service of cultivated land and ignores the multi-function of cultivated land as an ecosystem, resulting in insufficient incentives and poor effect. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the protection’s economic compensation standard by adding the cultivated land’s ecosystem service value in order to comprehensively assess cultivated land resources and correct for externalities. Taking the area around Hangzhou Bay, where the contradiction between cultivated land protection and economic development is prominent, as an example, the values of six typical cultivated land ecosystem services in 2016 was constructed and calculated, including food production, carbon sequestration and oxygen production, water conservation, soil conservation, biodiversity maintenance, and cultural leisure. Combined with ecosystem services’ values and the quality index, we finally determined the new county-level compensation standard of cultivated land protection in the Hangzhou Bay area. The results show that the value of cultivated land ecosystem services present obvious regional disparities, meaning that there exist significant differences in the sustainable use capacity of cultivated land and the necessity of establishing grading compensation standards in the region. Finally, we analyze the rationality and innovation of the new compensation standard model as well as its role in the protection of cultivated land and look forward to promoting the sustainable use of cultivated land through these new incentives.

Keywords: cultivated land protection; ecosystem services; ecological compensation; compensation standard; Hangzhou Bay (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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