Abstract: Establishment of nature reserves is one of the most important strategies for conserving biodiversity and restoring ecosystems′ services,while the mechanism of ecological compensation plays a very important role in the construction and sustainable management of nature reserves.Based on the literature available,development of the concepts and theories of ecological compensation are summarized,and researches and practices in this aspect both at home and abroad are analyzed.Results show that the government and the market are the two leading factors in implementing ecological compensation of nature reserves,and common payment is a major means regardless countries both developed and developing,and community participation promoted through ecological compensation is an effective approach to nature reserve management.Issues,such as principles,approaches,standards and measures,in the establishment of ecological compensation mechanism in China are also discussed.