Estimating inter-regional payments for ecosystem services: Taking China’s Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region as an example

Abstract

The inter-regional payments for ecosystem services (PES) is an important policy to promote regional ecological and environmental cooperation. However, the existing inter-regional PES standard in China may underestimate the value of ecosystem services and omit the value of transferred pollutants due to inter-regional trade. A reasonable framework of inter-regional PES standards is necessary for the policymakers, especially in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region with the most serious environmental problem in China. This paper employed the method of environmental impact evaluation and multi-regional input-output model (MRIO) to build a framework of inter-regional PES estimation, which both contained the regional spillover value of ecosystem services and the regional transfer value of pollutants. Finally, we estimate the amount of inter-regional payment for ecosystem services within BTH region. The results indicated that the PES standards within BTH region were 13.8 billion yuan and 19.2 billion yuan from Beijing, Tianjin to Hebei province in 2012, which accounted for 0.77 % and 1.49 % of their GDP in 2012. These PES standards are effective for regional ecological and environmental cooperation within BTH region and a multi-dimensional marketization mechanism should be implemented to reinforce inter-regional payment for ecosystem services, which may pave the way for other regions or countries.