Forest Vegetation Restoration Fee (China)

While China has a multitute if 'eco-compensation' schemes, the majority of schemes fall under the category of government-mediated payments for ecosystem services, often focusing on water quality and flood mitigation services rather than biodiversity. The one program with biodiversity copmensation focus is the Forest Vegetation Restoration Fee, a national regulatory program that requires developers impacting lands zoned for forestry to avoid, minimize, and then pay a Forest Vegetation Restoration Fee. The program has its basis in the Forest Law of the PRC (1998), with details provided in the 2002 Forest Vegetation Restoration Fee Levy, Use and Management Provsisional measures. The funds from the fee are used by the government for tree-planting and forest restoration activities at a minimum ratio of one square meter mitigated for every square meter impacted. An interesting aspect of this program is that the fee specified for each are not ecosystem-based, but rather are based on forest-use zoning. For example there are differing fees for impacts to 'economic forestland', 'non-mature plantation forests', and 'national key protected forestland'. It is unkown whether the fee collected must be used to offset with a 'like' category of forest.