Abstract:Clarifying the rights and responsibilities of ecological compensation in watershed management within the perspective of ecological fairness is of significant importance for breaking through the challenges in the allocation of watershed compensation funds and advancing ecological compensation efforts. This paper, based on the construction of the ecological service value, establishes a framework for calculating the ecological compensation standards in the Irtysh River Basin. The least squares virtual variable model is employed to determine the watershed compensation standards, and a compensation priority discrimination method is used to analyze the spatial selection issues of watershed compensation. The results indicate: ① From 2000 to 2020, the land use conversion in the Irtysh River Basin exhibits a characteristic of "forest to grass, grass to other," especially during the period from 2000 to 2010, where the net conversion scale of forest and grassland reached 2088.34 km2 (7.16% of the total) and 5916.94 km2 (12.21% of the total), respectively. ② From 2000 to 2020, the total compensation received and the total compensation amount in the Irtysh River Basin show a two-phase trend, with the corresponding amounts stabilizing after 2010. In 2020, the compensation intensity decreased by 56.06% compared to 2000, and the compensation intensity decreased by 23.72%. ③ The ecological compensation spatial zoning in the Irtysh River Basin exhibits a significant "North receiving-South compensating" characteristic. In 2020, the scale of priority compensation funds in the Irtysh River Basin was 14.53 billion yuan, and the scale of priority compensation funds was 19.23 billion yuan, corresponding to areas of 1665 km2 and 720 km2, respectively. The ecological compensation scheme provided in this paper has scientific reference value for the diversified implementation of ecological compensation work in township units. Relevant departments can use this as a basis to enhance the precision of ecological transfer payments and formulate ecological compensation schemes that are widely accepted.