Grassland ecological compensation accounting based on the flow of emergy ecological products: a case from the Qinghai Tibet region, China

The relationship between the value of grassland ecological products and the distribution of regional benefits is key to realizing the value of ecological compensation. This study is based on an improved emergy ecological surplus model to identify the supply and demand regions for grassland ecological products, and constructs an emergy ecological product flow model to determine the flow volume and range of ecological products. Combining the regional economic level, an ecological compensation model is established to calculate the ecological compensation amount and compensation paths for the Qinghai-Tibet region. The results show that: (1) From 2014 to 2024, the supply and demand region ratio of grassland emergy ecological products in the Qinghai-Tibet region decreased from 12:3 to 9:6, with the demand region for emergy ecological products spreading outward from provincial capital cities. (2) From 2014 to 2024, the number of emergy ecological product flow paths in the Qinghai-Tibet region increased from 12 to 17, and the average emergy ecological product flow increased from 87.3 sej/m² to 122.3 sej/m². From the spatial distribution perspective, the flow of emergy ecological products shows a "west to east" characteristic. (3) From 2014 to 2024, the total amount of ecological compensation payments for grasslands in the Qinghai-Tibet region increased from 26.798 million yuan to 101.785 million yuan. The areas with higher payment amounts are mainly concentrated in provincial capitals across the Qinghai-Tibet region.