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The paper follows a field survey of 773 rural households in 14 towns in five prefectures (cities and districts) around the Poyang Lake, and uses a multivariate ordered logistic model to explore the factors influencing satisfaction with wetland ecological compensation policies (WECPs) from the perspective of rural households’ subjective cognition of WECPs and income factors. The research shows the following. (1) the overall score for satisfaction of farmers with WECPs is 3.56, which indicates satisfaction between “fair” and “fairly satisfied,” and there is room for policy optimization. (2) The subjective cognition of policies and the income-related factors have significant impacts on the satisfaction of farmers with WECPs. Among them, cognition of policy objectives, evaluation of compensation rates, timely distribution of compensations, government supervision, changes in household incomes and importance of compensation on households all have significant positive influences on policy satisfaction. (3) The degree of education, the proportion of household labor forces and the proportion of household non-agricultural incomes have a significant positive impact on the policy satisfaction of farmers. Therefore, in future policy implementation, we should strengthen publicity and guidance of the policy, raise compensation rates appropriately, strengthen government supervision, pay attention to rural livelihood, and establish an ecological compensation mechanism featuring fairness and long-term effectiveness.

Highly toxic pesticides bring negative externalities to water pollution, which increase the demand for green pesticides that are low-toxic and high-efficiency. With the implementation of the unique the Centralized Pesticide Distribution (CPD) policy aiming to reduce the use of chemical pesticides in Huangshan, we try to explore the factors that affect farmers’ acceptance of CPD and thus change their pesticides selection. Based on the theory of farmers’ ecological rationality, we build a decision-making ecosystem on accepting CPD and assuming that farmers’ behavior is determined hierarchically by factors, then the Logistic-AISM model is used for empirical testing using data collected from 233 representative farmers. The results show that the proportion of agri-income and participation in cooperatives fundamentally affected choices for CPD acceptance through two middle-level indirect factor: government publicity and the availability of agri-information by changing farmers’ cognition on pesticides and production status. Thus, CPD may be improved by selling a richer variety of insecticides and implementing more publicity. Lessons from China inspire other intensive farming countries to promote green pesticides by: expanding the sales channel of green agri-products, playing the auxiliary role of cooperatives, and inventing more eco-friendly pesticides.

Nonpoint source pollution in the upstream areas of a water basin has become a serious threat to urban drinking water safety in China. Payment for environmental services (PES) is seen as a promising instrument to address the problem, for which one key information is the willingness to pay (WTP) of urban water users for water source pollution control. Using a contingent valuation survey data, we estimate the WTP of Fuzhou City residents for pollution control by the livestock farms located at the upstream Min River. When the protest responses are not distinguished, the mean WTP is estimated at CNY0.21/m 3 , or 10% of the current base tariff. When the protestors are distinguished, the estimated mean WTP equals CNY0.51. The total annual WTPs of the two cases are CNY22 million and CNY53 million, respectively, which lead to potentially opposite conclusions about Fuzhou's participation in the provincial PES program, to which Fuzhou contributes CNY30 million. The results highlight the importance of addressing protest responses in contingent valuation as well as in policymaking and implementation. We find that the WTP varies greatly with income, which calls for attention to the affordability and distribution issues of a water tariff reform.

Upstream nonpoint source pollution has become a significant threat to urban drinking water safety in the People’s Republic of China. Payment for environmental services (PES) is seen as a promising mechanism to deal with the situation. In designing a sound PES, it is crucial to determine the willingness to pay (WTP) of urban beneficiaries for upstream water pollution controls. An analysis of household data from a contingent valuation survey conducted in Fuzhou in 2009 reveals that household income is the most important factor in determining respondents’ positions on water tariff increases as well as WTP under a PES scheme. Mean WTP varies from Yuan (CNY) –0.45 per cubic meter to CNY0.86 for different income groups. The overall mean WTP is estimated to be CNY0.21, which is equivalent to a 10% increase in the current tariff, with the 95% confidence interval at (CNY0.12, CNY0.31). The point estimate implies a total annual WTP of Fuzhou City equal to CNY22 million, which is 27% less than the contribution of Fuzhou to an ongoing government-financed PES. However, with continuous water tariff increases, affordability among low-income households might arise as an issue. This calls for subsidies targeting low-income households to be incorporated in water tariff reform.