Study on public willingness and incentive mechanism of ecological compensation for inter-basin water transfer in China in the carbon neutral perspective

Constructing payments for ecosystem services (PES) for inter-basin water transfer is one of the effective means to adjust the interest relationship and promote low-carbon development in the region. The inter-basin water transfer ecological compensation policy (IWTECP) in China is a PES project facing a series of problems. To this end, we applied contingent valuation method (CVM) to examine the willingness to pay (WTP) in water-receiving area and willingness to accept (WTA) in water-source area of the eastern route of South-to-North Water Transfer Project, China. The WTP and WTA values were 206.29 RMB/(person.year) (USD 32.37/(person.year)) and 443.29 RMB/(person.year) (USD 69.55/(person.year)) respectively. Bayesian network model was employed to explore the influencing factors, it was found that educational background, per capita monthly household income and the recognition of the importance of the project to the city or the country had the greater influence on WTP, while age, per capita monthly household income and the influence of project on personal life were the most influential factors on WTA. By comparing the influencing factors of WTP and WTA, the intention preference of the respondents was discussed. Then, SWOT matrix analysis method was adopted to put forward incentive mechanism from the perspectives of internal public background and external environmental policies. Our results could provide incentive policies for target groups of consumers, improve the efficiency of ecological protection, and promote the reform of the IWTECP.