The key issues for the development of a forest ecological compensation mechanism primarily include three aspects: definition of stakeholders, the amount of compensation, and compensation methods. Currently, there is considerable controversy regarding a substantial difference between monetary measurement of the forest ecological benefit and the actual compensation amount. On the one hand, forest managers claim that the amount of compensation cannot meet the investment needs, and therefore, it should be calculated based on the output of forest ecological benefit. On the other hand, it is understandable that much of the forest ecological benefit is attributed to natural input, which cannot be measured simply by money. International forest ecological compensation cases show that different countries globally adopt different forest ecological compensation mechanisms, because of their specific forest resource property systems. Private forests are biased toward market compensation mechanisms, whereas public forests are biased toward government-led compensation mechanisms. Forest ecological compensation funds are mainly derived from forest ecosystem service user fees, payment from the government on behalf of beneficiaries, and donations from international organizations. The compensation methods mainly depend on government investment, complemented by user fees and market-based transactions with authentication and authorization. According to international experience, combined with the status quo of forest ecological benefit compensation in China, forest managers could be defined as the supplier of forest ecosystem services, but it is difficult to determine forest ecosystem service beneficiaries. Therefore, government guidance and third-party intervention should be the main solutions for funding forest ecological compensation and executing compensation; the amount of forest ecological compensation should be calculated based on the cost of the damaged party.