Abstract:  

Farmers’ willingness is an important factor that affects ecological compensation.In order to explore the influencing factors and importance of farmers’ willingness to participate in ecological compensation and find countermeasures to improve the performance of ecological compensation implementation,Yanchi County in Ningxia Province,China was taken as an example.Yanchi County is located in the ecotone between agriculture and animal husbandry in northern China and is responsible for the important ecosystem service function in the region.This study chose eight typical villages and towns and 26 administrative villages to gain research data from farmers.Based on survey data from 279 households,the paper used the structural equation model to analyze the influencing factors of farmers’ willingness to participate in ecological compensation.The results show as follows: (1) the farmer’s household characteristics directly and positively affected the willingness to participate in ecological compensation.In addition,it indirectly affected the willingness to participate in ecological compensation through the amount of natural capital,environmental awareness and policy cognition. (2) The amount of natural capital had direct and significantly negative impact on the willingness. (3) The environmental perception directly affected farmers’ willingness and the effect is least. (4) The policy cognition had directly and positively influence on farmers’ willingness,and the effect is the greatest.Therefore,it is necessary to carry out education and training to improve farmers’ cognitive level and ensure the long-term sustainability of the project.At the same time,it will increase farmers’ right to be informed and their participation right,promote the third-party evaluation mechanism,and protect farmers’ core interests.Giving full play to the leading role of the local government,guiding the farmers to set a reasonable expectation of ecological compensation and to hold right values of environmental protection can help achieve the “win-win” goal of environmental protection and economic development.

Key words: ecological compensation')">">ecological compensation, participation willingness of farmer household, structural equation model, Yanchi County in Ningxia