The Historical Evolution, Current Dilemma and Paths Exploration of Ecological Compensation System of China's Public Welfare Forest.

(1) Background--Ecological compensation is the compensation for the positive externalities of forest re sources exerting ecological benefits, and it is an important content of ecological civilization construction. The ecological compensation system of China' s public welfare forest is an important policy tool to realize the value of forest ecological products. The existing studies mainly discuss the ecological benefits of ecological compensation policies and the economic and social benefits of ecological compensation systems, but few studies analyze the historical evolution and existing problems of the ecological compensation system of China' s public welfare forest. (2) Methods--In this paper, qualitative policy analysis and quantitative data evaluation were used to re view the legislative milestones and academic discourses of the ecological compensation system of China's public welfare forest in detail. Using the framework of "historical logic-practice exploration-realistic dilemma-paths exploration", this paper systematically analyzed the historical evolution, current dilemma and paths selection of the ecological compensation system of China's public welfare forest. (3)Results--From the perspective of historical evolution, the ecological compensation system of China's public welfare forest has experienced four stages; the initial stage (1956-1993), the exploration stage (1994- 2003), the promotion stage (2004-2015) and the deepening stage (2016-present). From the perspective of practical exploration, the ecological compensation standard of China's public welfare forest is gradually improving, and at the same time, it is gradually promoting classified compensation and exploring market-oriented ecological compensation and diversified ecological compensation. From the perspective of current dilemma, the ecological compensation standard of China's public welfare forest is single and relatively low, and the channels for raising compensation funds are narrow. At the same time, due to policy restrictions and management challenges, the self-financing ability of China's public welfare forest is also weak. (4) Conclusions and Discussions--Based on the above research conclusions, the following policy suggestions are proposed: First, adjust the compensation standard of public welfare forest dynamically according to price changes, economic inflation and other factors to arouse the enthusiasm of forest farmers. Second, explore classified compensation methods for public welfare forest. Increase the classification compensation of key ecological locations, widen the gap in the amount of classification compensation, and implement classification compensation according to different ownership, so as to improve the fairness and effectiveness of the compensation sys tem. Third, construct the financing channels of diversified compensation. Promote the positive interaction between protectors and limiters, establish horizontal ecological compensation funds between regions, and include ecological public welfare forest in the forestry carbon sinks projects. Fourth, optimize the management mode of public welfare forest. It mainly includes innovating the renewal and transformation methods of public welfare forest, exploring the mode of sharing shares of public welfare forest, encouraging the pledge loan of the compensation in come rights of public welfare forest, and increasing special funding support for areas that use public welfare forest to develop understory economy and forest tourism, so as to improve the self-compensation ability of public welfare forest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]