Abstract: Lake restoration is an important step of rehabilitating ecological function of the Yangtze River.Whether the step as a program could be successful or not depends on how the farmers,who have lost their original benefits and contributed to the ecosystem recovery,are compensated.In the Dongting Lake area,an important commercial agriculture base of the country with a high population density,practical implementation of the program has come across a number of challenges.One of them is the tough task of population relocation.The Dongting Lake area is an ideal site for a case study to explore basic issues in eco-compensation,that are,who should pay,who should get paid,how much is the payment and how payment is done,etc.