Designing Consumer-based Quota Trading Mechanism (CQTM) is an innovative approach not only to achieve value of ecological products, but also to alleviate the structural contradiction between conservation and development in different administrative regions. We introduce a novel approach to design CQTM based on the initial quota allocation of protected areas and put forward three basic principles, ecological security, operability and adaption. The specific market elements we identified in this approach are market objects, market entities, trading methods and trading mechanisms: market objects include the tradable area quota of protected areas and the area index of cultivated and construction land converted from it; market entities have to be governments at and above the county level; trading methods are to prioritize intra-provincial transactions and encourage inter-provincial transactions; and trading mechanisms contain price mechanism, review mechanism and supervision mechanism. We further disclose the roles that the law of price, the law of supply and demand and the law of competition can play in this trading mechanism.