China’s PES-like horizontal eco-compensation program: Combining market-oriented mechanisms and government interventions

Jichuan Sheng, Wenge Qiu and Xiao Han

Ecosystem Services, 2020, vol. 45, issue C

Abstract: Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) conceptualizes a pro-market conservation approach to address ecological problems, but political influences in social reality always challenge PES implementations. There remains limited known about PES(-like) practices in authoritarian states like China. Particularly, the Chinese state launched the Horizontal Eco-compensation program, labeled as combining market-oriented mechanisms and governmental interventions. This paper examines how horizontal eco-compensation (HEC) is framed in China and deployed as a form of practicing state environmental governance. We employ an X-Y dimension framework to critically examine China’s HEC policies, focusing on the interplay of policy tools and project components. We find that China’s HEC has typical characteristics of market-oriented ecosystem services, including marketization, commodification, privatization, and devolution. China’s HEC also embodies at least three forms of authoritarian intervention: governments arrange most HEC financing; governments often act as ES providers and/or buyers; and governments also supervise the HEC’s implementation. We further argue that China’s HEC may be effective in the short term, but it is not sustainable in the long run. These findings contribute to broader PES literature on how the idea of PES is translated and practiced in an authoritarian state.

Keywords: Authoritarian state; Horizontal eco-compensation; Payments for ecosystem services; Qualitative content analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212041620301066
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoser:v:45:y:2020:i:c:s2212041620301066

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2020.101164

Access Statistics for this article

Ecosystem Services is currently edited by Leon C Braat

More articles in Ecosystem Services from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().