Economic growth has multiplied the environmental challenges faced by the People's Republic of China but has also created opportunities, by increasing available funding for environmental management and conservation. At the nexus of these countervailing trends, policy makers have been experimenting with new approaches to environmental management under the broad heading of “eco-compensation”. Many of these are market-based, particularly payments for ecosystem services; an emerging policy debate is regarding the extent to which beneficiaries should pay, and the providers should be compensated, for the provision of natural resources and environmental services to promote sustainable, balanced growth. This paper synthesizes the findings of the International Conference on Payments for Ecological Services convened in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in September 2009 to support eco-compensation programs in the country.
