The Chinese characteristics of payments for ecosystem services: a conceptual analysis of water eco-compensation mechanisms

Raymond Yu Wang, Cho Nam Ng and Xiaoxing Qi

International Journal of Water Resources Development, 2020, vol. 36, issue 4, 651-669

Abstract: The applications of payments for ecosystem/environmental services (PES) are diverse. However, the changing characteristics of these applications in different contexts have not been adequately elucidated. This article provides a conceptual analysis of China’s water eco-compensation mechanism (ECM), a notion reported in the PES literature, through the lens of public–private, state–market, central–local and interjurisdictional relationships. It argues that the water ECM is essentially a state-centric utilitarian approach to mediating regional conflicts and inequalities. The Chinese practices of water ECM indicate an alternative approach to incentive-based conservation, highlighting the potential of integrating government-led instruments with market-oriented mechanisms in the development of a PES framework.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1080/07900627.2019.1605889

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