Suggestions on Forest Ecological Compensation—Taking Mudanjiang City as an Example

Li Ying，Zhang Zheng，Cui Li-juan，Siji K-Maunel，and Jia Li

College of Economics and Management，Northeast Agricultural University，Harbin 150030，China

Suggestions on Forest Ecological Compensation
—Taking Mudanjiang City as an Example

Li Ying，Zhang Zheng，Cui Li-juan，Siji K-Maunel，and Jia Li*

College of Economics and Management，Northeast Agricultural University，Harbin 150030，China

The forest ecological compensation is an important factor to balance the interests of different areas for sustainable development and environment protection. Mudanjiang City in Heilongjiang Province of China is rich of forest resources. The forestry coverage rate reached 62.3% in 2014，after forestry conservation program from 2002. The authors explored the factors impacted on forest ecological compensation in Mudanjiang City，which was a demonstration as a case study，through experts' evaluation scores and AHP methodology to analyze the forest ecological compensation factors and lay the foundation for the establishment of ecological compensation mechanism. At the same time，we provided an example to explore the effective way and speed up the establishment of ecological compensation mechanism. The study found that the main factors that determined forest ecological compensation in Mudanjiang City were ecology and natural resources. Based on the analyses，some suggestions were put forward to promote the mechanism in a sustainable way.

forest，ecological compensation，ecological factor，AHP，suggestion

Introduction

The Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China （CPC） enhanced the construction of ecological civilization in prominent position，and has already articulated the goals and missions of allround constructions of socialism as well as ecological civilization. Establishing ecological compensation mechanism is so important in order to guarantee the construction of the ecological civilization. In the seventh national conference on environmental protection，Prime Minister Li Keqiang stressed that ecological compensation would be an important method to balance the development and environmental rights in different regions to stimulate the establishment of ecological compensation mechanism and to explore effective measures for ecological compensation.

Basically，forest ecological compensation means to take the ecological protection development cost，opportunity cost and ecological services value into consideration. To give reasonable compensation，tools such as fiscal transfer payment or market transactions could be used，as well as to make the ecological protection into internalization of external economy public institutional arrangements. The strategy of the forest ecological protection has been based on the conservationists，as well as the beneficiary's rights and obligations. Moreover，the development of prio-rityzones can be the examples for the less developed areas for their developments，to get rid of the poverty-stricken conditions and to share the development benefits by the reformation. The establishment of ecological civilization and promoting the harmonious development of man and nature are of great significance.

Although many scholars around the world carried out some researches on forest ecological compensation，papers about Mudanjiang forest ecological compensation has not been reported yet. Forest ecological compensation has either broad sense or narrow sense. In addition，the plant diseases and insect pests，fire prevention，those factors shall be included in the forest ecological compensation （Li et al.，2007）. When evaluate the value of forest ecological，you can choose one or more methods to assess the ecological value，and the results should be combine the time value and the discount rate （Mao et al.，2006）. The evaluation standard of forest ecological compensation should take the forest types，forest category into considerations （Ling et al.，2011）. Forest ecological compensation should be able to play an incentive role of forest farmers，so that to make further development of forest ecological compensation system （Wu et al.，2012）. At present，the main methods of ecological compensation in China are both the government compensation and market compensation，therefore，they result in the unclear property rights，unknown compensation body and high transaction cost factors of the forest ecological benefit compensation （Liu，2004）. Evaluate the value of forest ecological benefits which can make people to have a comprehensive understanding and objective evaluation on the status and function of forest，and encourage residents to concentrate on the healthy development of ecosystem （Wei et al.，2012）. The policy implementation of ecological compensation in China，supposed that the policy can consider the economic and social factors of forest ecological compensation comprehensively，according to the distribution charac-teristics of forest and local economic development level to make different compensation policies and systems （Ren et al.，2007）. The follow-up study of ecological compensation should be applied more urgent and realistic，and require multidisciplinary researches （Zhang et al.，2014）. On the basis about the factor of social and economic of forest ecological benefit compensation，China should apply to different ecological benefit compensation standards in different periods （Song et al.，2009）. The residents' willingness to pay for forest ecological compensation would benefit economy，and the results showed that 80.3% of residents were willing to pay for it （Li et al.，2006）. In current years，the development of forest ecological compensation system is not perfect，and we can introduce forest insurance and other services to satisfy its demand （Zhu et al.，2013） .

Mudanjiang is a city of rich forest，and it was formally implemented the project for forest ecological compensation in 2002. Compensation areas are mainly distributed in the Nature Reserve of Mudanfeng，Small Beihu Crater National Forest Parks and they are located in the counties of Ning'an，Muling and Dongning. The forest types involve the key protection forest as well as the forests with special utilization purposes. The compensation standards are based on the similarities and differences of forest ecological regions and they are mainly divided into two types，which are 60 Yuan · hm2and 52.5 Yuan · hm2. Firstly，Mudanjiang Moranbong and Small Beihu Forest Farm get with an average management fee of 60 Yuan · hm2. Secondly，Muling and Dongning Counties get with an average management fee of 52.5 Yuan · hm2，and the effect is significant. Mudanjiang City covers an area of 2.42 million hectares and the forest coverage rate reached 62.3%. This is an important part of forest zone in the Northern Europe and Asia. Forest mainly distributes between the northeast side of Zhangguangcai ridge and Laoye ridge in Changbai Mountain，which is a natural secondary forest，accounted for 66.6% and the rest of the plantation is 33.4%. The main tree species include 296 categories and those are known as the "Dense woods". The pleasant climate brings the reputationof the city as a true forest city. Furthermore，it gives a good opportunity to explore the forest ecological compensation and provides great importance for the sustainable development of Mudanjiang City.

Main Factors Related to Forest Ecological Compensation

Methodology

The paper applied the analytic hierarchy process （AHP）to analyze the influential factors of forest ecological compensation in the area covers of Mudanjiang City. AHP was put forward by the operational researcher，he is the professor T.L.Saaty （Duan et al.，2014）. It has been a new decision method for the basic ideas，where complex decision issues are solved by general objective，goal，and evaluation standard. The specific measures of the structure of the sequence were decomposed into different levels，and then analyzed the data to establish a judgement matrix，and each level of the weight of every element would reflect the importance of different factors by using the method of weighting summation. Finally，we found out the weight of each scheme of the overall goal （Zhao，2010）. The authors chose 20 experts who are working in the area related to forest ecological compensation to apply the methodology of AHP. Then，they tried to evaluate the relative importance of various influencing factors to make contrast judgment，and the values might be expressed in the form of matrix. The demonstration carried on with the principle of target layer A and layer B's calculation as an example. To judge the relative importance of various influencing factors，the "1-9 scale method was adopted to quantify，as shown in Table 1.

Table 1　1-9 scale method

Selection of influence factors and establishment of index weight

In this paper，based on the selection of influencing factors，field investigation，discussion and expert scoring，we selected three kinds of influential indexes on ecological compensation such as ecology and natural resources factors，economic factors and social factors. Among them，the ecology and natural resources include forest ecological location，tree species and forestry types，forest origin，forest age structure，forest stock volume，plant diseases and insect pests，biodiversity，and annual growth. Secondly，economic factors include: the local economic development level，the employment of forest worker，forest workers' income，forest property rights，afforestation cost，management cost，and opportunity cost. Moreover，social factors include the residents' awareness of environment，people's income，level of education，outdoor exercise time，local environmental pollution，policy，forestry tourism，publicity，education and legal system.

Some factors affecting the index explanation asfollowings:

（1） Ecological factors and natural resources: reflects the growth of the forest itself，the fundamental factors that affect forest ecological compensation.

1） Forest ecological location factors: refers to the forest ecosystem or ecological unit at a geometry point. The importance of forest ecological niches refers to a forest ecosystem or forest ecological unit to maintain the importance of the regional ecological security and its ecological function in a particular area，different forest ecosystems will have different impacts on local ecological and its fragile degree （Liu，2008）.

2） Tree species and forest types: for different tree species and forest types，forest ecological value is not the same. For example，in terms of soil，the effect of oak forest，birches felt more appropriate. For water conservation，broad-leaved mixed forest，oak woods，mixed needle leaf laid more suitable.

3） Forest origin: forest woodland can be divided into natural forests and plantations according to different origins. Literature reviews have shown that ecological function of natural forest was obviously higher than that of plantation （Liu，2003）.

4） Forest age structure: refers to the forest ecological system and the age structure of the trees. The results showed that the ecological benefit experienced a downward trend among over matured forest，nearly maturation forest，mid-maturation forest and young forest.

5） Forest stock volume: forest ecological value quantity depends on the size of the amount of change. The larger the forest stock volume is，the higher the forest ecological value will be.

（2） Economic factors: determine the amount of the compensation standard.

1） National and local economic development level: if the level of economic development is higher，the central and local government should pay much attention to the protection of the ecological environment and development through financial tools.

2） Forest worker's employment and income: affects the compensation standard，if the local forest worker employment rate is low，with less income and poverty stricken condition，compensation amount should be increased.

3） Cost factors: include afforestation cost，capital and management cost and opportunity cost. These are the basic factors influencing the forest ecological compensations.

（3） Social factors: those are the factors to a large extent affected the forest ecological compensation amount. Forest ecological compensation is a kind of payment mechanism which includes some stakeholders sharing the forestry ecological function and benefit，the stakeholders include not only the government at different levels，the green foundation，and some other organizations，but also according to others who benefit from the compensation principle. Local residents enjoy the value of forest ecosystem，also should give some compensations. Therefore，the influences of social factors are also important factors.

1） Residents' awareness of environment: residents concern more about the environment. They will show greater willingness to pay for the value compensation of forest ecology.

2） Resident income: with higher income the demand of ecological environment is relatively high and tends to enjoy a beautiful environment. So they prefer to support to ecological construction and ecological compensation.

3） Educational level: the higher education of the residents，the support of the compensation for the ecological construction is relatively higher.

4） Outdoor exercise time: outdoor exercise is closely related to the external environment. A good external environment is more likely to make people enjoy outdoor activities.

5） Local environmental pollution: the heavier the pollution level，the more urgent to improve the environmental requirement. Therefore，more and more people are likely to support ecological construction.

According to the above factor indicators，the target layer，rule layer and scheme layer in sequence，for Mudanjiang forest ecological compensation factor，hierarchy model was set up，as shown Table 2.matrix in Table 3，judgment matrix was concluded.

Table 2　Mudanjiang forest ecological compensation factor hierarchy

Forest Ecological Compensation Factor Analysis

Building matrix

Based on the basic principle of analytic hierarchy process （AHP），calculation of target layer and rule layer B as an example，analyzing the construction of A matrix. To determine the relative importance of each affecting factor，"1-9" scale method was used to quantify，as shown in Table 2，carried on the expert scoring. According to the expert scoring target layer we obtained a judgment matrix in Table 3.

Hierarchical single sort

（1） After normalizing the target layer of A judgment

（2） By line together

（3） After normalizing vector=［1.5740，1.0013，0.4247］T，concluding

（4） Calculating the maximum characteristic root judgment matrix λmax，according to

（AW）1=1.0000×0.5247+2.000×0.3338+3.000×0.1414 =1.6171

（AW）2=0.5000×0.5247+1.000×0.3338+3.000×0.1414 =1.0210

（AW）3=0.3333×0.5247+0.3333×0.3338+1.000×0.1414 =0.4278

（5） Matrix consistency check

So，we could judge that the matrix had a satisfactory consistency.

Analyze the above data，obtaining Table 4.

Table 3　 Target layer，A judgment matrix

Table 4　 Various influence factors and weights of target layer A

Hierarchy total sorts and consistency check

According to the above method other target layer B1，B2，and B3were obtained，which influenced factors and weight，as shown in Table 5.

Therefore，it passed the consistency check.

Table 5　 Computing total sorts results of index layer

Analysis Results and Some Suggestions on Forestry Ecological Compensation

Analysis results

Rule layer stands for the three big aspects influencing forest ecological compensation. These factors are ecological and natural resource factors，economic factors and social factors. Research results showed that，among the three factors，ecological and natural resource factors accounted for the largest percentage，which was 0.5278. Economic factors ranked the second largest proportion of the total，which was 0.3325. Social factors，took the smallest proportion that was 0.1396. The essential characteristics would decide the development direction of the things. Therefore，the ecological and natural resources factors were the fundamental factors of forest ecological compensation. The form and origin of the resources itself were different，which determines the divergent levels of the ecological compensation. The economic base determines the superstructure. Therefore，economic factors determine the amount of the compensation standards. Forestry ecological compensation payment mechanism，which includes many stakeholders who can benefit from the compensation principle，they are the local government，organization related to local forest，the green foundation，local residents，who enjoy the value of forestry ecosystem. Therefore，the influences of social factors are also important factors.

Suggestions

Principal strategy

（1） Systemic principle. The forestry ecological compensation under the influence of a variety of single factors and their combination. Therefore，correct judgment of the influence factors of forest ecological compensation should consider the internal and external factors. Other aspects，make every effort to reflect the forestry ecological compensation degree of the various influential combination factors. The differences and relations between the factors make sure that the single factor index and combination factor indexes to be able to analyze it completely.

（2） Scientific principle. Any establishments of indicator system should follow the guidance of the scientific rules in accordance with objective laws. The establishment of the index system directly affects the problem that how to calculation forest ecological compensation and forestry ecological compensation standard. Therefore，more attention should be given to the scientific index system by concentrating on the related theories and methodology. Selecting the indicators scientifically，would make the influence of different aspects of forest ecological compensation accurate and become standardized.

（3） Guidance and general principle. The establishment of the index system of influencing factors of forest ecological compensation is not only for each factor score of Mudanjiang forest ecological compensation. The more important thing is to establish an index system of general value and guidance value in Heilongjiang Province and even the national ecological compensation，which will have a certain guiding significance and would enhance the development of ecological services.

（4） Feasibility principle. Influencing factors index system of forest ecological compensation； eventually provide guidance and reference for construction of Mudanjiang forest ecological compensation. So，when we establish an index system，we should focus on its feasibility. The selection indicators should be easy to obtain，accurate，and reliable. Furthermore，it should be able to describe the impacts of forest ecological compensation completely.

Social fair strategy

In social factors，the legal system，policy，people's income and the influence factors of outdoor exercise time are more important，accounting for 3.26%，2.59%，2.12% and 1.36% of the total proportion，respectively. From those，we got to know the establishment of the forest ecological compensation system need certain legal and policy supports. The degree of residents'support for ecological compensation mainly depends on their income and outdoor exercise time. Those who do outdoor exercises longer can feel the importance of ecological environment. Finally，residents with higher income are more likely to support the forest ecological compensation.

Natural resources conservation strategy

The influential factors of ecology and natural resources，such as forest ecological niches，biological diversity，forest stock volume and its origin are relatively important factors，which account for 11.62%，11.39%，8.26% and 6.11% of total percentage，respectively. These four factors of the forest ecological values have the most important influence. Forest ecological niches are referred to the forest of the external ecological environment. The more fragile of an ecological environment condition，the greater of the forestry ecological value would become. The forest has a function of biodiversity as well as volume of trees. Forest origin will affect the value of forest ecology；therefore，it would impact the amount of forest ecology. Therefore，forestry ecological compensation should consider the above mentioned factors.

Sustainable economy development strategy

As economic factors，the region's economic development level，resident income of forest area，the management cost and the afforestation cost are the main influence factors，which account for 10.85%，6.39%，5.33% and 4.37% of the total proportion，respectively. If the local regional economic development level is higher，the local areas can also pay the ecological value according to the actual situation of forest ecological compensation，except the national ecological compensation. Limited mining and cutting of natural forest will have impacts on residents as well as the workers' livelihoods. Subsequently，to give certain compensations，local residents as well as the workers' specific life demand and income should be considered. The reconstruction and the maintenance of the forest would need a certain amount of the manpowers，and material resources. Therefore，we should also calculate the cost factor appropriately.

Above all，forest ecological compensation was more than a complex system，which was a key factor to impact the ecosystem. The policy was playing important role. Therefore，a correct judgment system and valuation were important，moreover，natural，economic and social factors of forest ecological compensation would help the government to implement the forest policies.

From an environmental perspective，the appearance of forest ecological compensation system enhance people's environmental awareness which meant that more and more residents would join in the team to protect the forest from damaging. Meanwhile，the government should take measures，such as investing more money to support forest management and providing a stable income for local residents. Specially，some elder local residents couldn't work so far from their hometown on some forest farms，but now they can make money by engaging in the protecting of the forest resources，and then forest coverage rate in China would be increased.

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F326.20 Document code: A Article ID: 1006-8104（2015）-01-0066-10

20 October 2014

Supported by by the National Social Science （14BGL090）； Humanities and Social Science Project of Educational Department in Heilongjiang Province （12542019）

Li Ying （1985-），female，Ph. D ，engaged in the research of forestry economic and policy. E-mail: 148050826@qq.com

. Jia Li，professor，supervisor of Ph. D student，engaged in the research of forestry economic and policy. E-mail: jiali@neau.edu.cn