Ecological compensation: How much and where?

Abstract

We propose a spatial framework to study ecological compensation.The policy-maker implements a No Net Loss policy that meets the No Worse-Off principle as well as a location constraint on the offset. This determines both the location and the level of compensation that minimize the total cost of restoration. We describe the additional ecological cost induced by the No Worse-Off principle and how the spatial distribution of individuals, the environment and land costs affect the compensation location. The location constraint is shown to introduce a trade-off between the compensation cost and inequality.

Let the Farmers Embrace “Carbon Neutrality”: Taking the Centralized Biogas as an Example

“…The premise of enabling farmers to better embrace “carbon neutrality” is to fully understand farmers’ economic demands in order to cope with changes to farmers’ lives, according to the theory of ecological compensation, with the aim of protecting sustainable utilization of ecosystem services, mainly for economic means, adjust the interests of stakeholders, and finally realize various rules that can promote compensation activities and mobilize the enthusiasm for ecological protection [ 14 ]. Because farmers are consumers, are they willing to embrace this?…”

How to measure the ecological compensation threshold in the upper Yangtze River basin, China? An approach for coupling InVEST and grey water footprint

“…Ecological compensation, also known as payment for environmental services, has become a hot topic in the 21st century as a mechanism for transforming environmental externalities and nonmarket values into internal real financial resources for environmental stakeholders, and its theoretical and practical research has been widely used in countries around the world (Engel et al, 2008;Farley and Costanza, 2010;Gastineau et al, 2021). The application of ecological compensation in different contexts is not entirely consistent and is generally agreed upon as a voluntary and quantifiable transaction between the compensating party and the compensated party, an institutional arrangement that regulates stakeholder interests primarily through economic means (Wen et al, 2011).…”

“…How to identify protected areas and beneficiary areas is the primary issue in establishing ecological compensation mechanisms, and this information directly determines the science and effectiveness of compensation. Related studies, e.g., Gastineau et al (2021), discussed the mechanism of the spatial distribution, environment and land cost factors affecting the location of ecological compensation. Hu et al (2022) used a mathematical model to determine the changes in spatial and temporal patterns of wind erosion prevention services provided by desert ecosystems from recharge areas to benefit areas from the perspective of ecosystem service flows.…”

Monitoring Soil Degradation Processes for Ecological Compensation in the Izmir Institute of Technology Campus (Turkey)

“…Ecological compensation, generally defined as the re-balancing of potential biodiversity loss during land and soil degradation processes [28], is the final and most radical action against soil sealing processes in the "mitigation hierarchy" sequence [29]. When land transformation cannot be avoided, and when mitigation measures are not sufficient to balance residual ecological impacts, creation or restoration of habitats is considered a basic measure to achieve No Net Loss, or result in a net gain, of biodiversity [30].…”