Nowadays, many countries in the world have paid attention to the issue of improving the eco-compensation program for their forest ecotourism systems aiming to successfully drive forest ecosystem protection. However, an operable eco-compensation mechanism must give a fair and balanced consideration to each involved party's pursuits which naturally encompass benefits and responsibilities. In this study, based on the evolutionary game theory, we developed a set of mathematical models to evaluate the attitudes and preferences toward the eco-compensation programs in which the three primary stakeholders are involved including farmers, local government, and business groups in order to investigate whether the stakeholders' asymptotic stabilization strategy can be discovered. In addition, the simulation analysis shows the sensitivity characteristics and evolution process of stakeholders influenced by multiple influencing factors. The results show that the threshold effect of these factors turns out to be an important basis in formulating sustainable development schemes for the eco-compensation program in the forest ecotourism system. Furthermore, the simulation analysis also shows that the initial state of stakeholders affects the rate of convergence to the asymptotic stability. Accordingly, we put forward the three-stage strategy and address policy implications on the operable eco-compensation program development of the forest ecotourism system.
Keywords: Eco-compensation; Evolutionary game theory; Forest ecotourism system; Multiple stakeholders; Sustainability.