Standard of payments for ecosystem services in Sanjiangyuan Natural Reserve

Payments for Ecosystem Services(PES) are thought to be an effective method to solve eco-environmental problems,and it′s widely adopted to promote ecological conservation all around the world.During the application of PES,Establishing the standard of compensation is crucial,because unreasonable standard may not compensate for the losses of stakeholders,which may dampen participants′ enthusiasm and influence the effects of PES. Sanjiangyuan Natural Reserve,which is one of the most important natural reserves of China,plays key role to the ecological security of lower watershed in China and Southeast Asia.Before setting up this reserve,there are large numbers of herdsmen living in this area,and conservation projects in reserve,including "Return Husbandry to Grassland","Return Grain for Green","Ecological Migration" and so on,lead to a series of losses of local residents.So giving these migrations compensation through PES is important to the development of reserve and local social harmony. During this research,we take two migration villages of Sanjiangyuan natural reserve(GuoLuo village and HeYuan village) as example to calculate the standard of compensation.Basing on the practical situation of research area,and considering the common problems of Chinese PES projects,we adopt 3 types of approaches("opportunity cost of livestock","opportunity cost of pasture" and "difference of regional development").Because the preferences of these approaches are different,the established standards of compensation have slight difference. The result of "opportunity cost of livestock" is 13.9 thousand Yuan per household per year.Livestock is the main source of herdsmen′s revenue,and the ecological migration project let them lose this part."Opportunity cost of livestock" takes livestock as proxy when calculating compensation standard,and can compensate for their direct economic losses.So this approach is strongly correlated to the benefits of herdsmen and can maximize the compensation. The result of "opportunity cost of pasture" is 10.3 thousand Yuan per household per year.Herdsmen can rent out their pasture to others to get rent,and the ecological migration project also let them lose this part of income."Opportunity cost of pasture" takes pasture as proxy,and compensate for the losses of rent.This approach considers pasture as commodity and reflects the relationship between supply and demand,and this approach can also simplify the calculating process.But this approach doesn′t consider natural heterogeneity,and all the pastures are calculated equally. The result of "difference of regional development" is 11 thousand Yuan per household per year.There is great regional economic development difference in our research area,and this actuality should not be ignored during the PES project,especially for ecological migration."Difference of regional development" can consider this difference,but the standard is still too low,comparing to the other two approaches.And neither herdsmen′ losses nor ecosystem services are related to this approach. Our results suggests that PES may provide limited benefits for the poverty reduction,but this research can still provide scientific foundation of establishing the compensation standard for Sanjiangyuan natural reserve,and case studying in other area can also borrow idea from our research.