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“By protecting the forests well, we received a ‘clean air dividend’ of 36,162.04 yuan without any extra work. It’s such a pleasant surprise!” Hong Shuiming, Party secretary of Fengshan Village in Daotao Township, Longquan, excitedly told reporters yesterday, pointing to the lush forests on the mountains. The “clean air dividend” he mentioned is the forest carbon sink revenue generated in June this year from the village’s 1,412 acres of woodlands.
Relying on the eco-product trading platform, 16 villages in Longquan received a total of 124,000 yuan in revenue from the “Zhejiang Forest Carbon Sink” project that day. Behind this “green wealth” lies Lishui’s continuous exploration in transforming the value of eco-products.
As the “top eco-environmental city in China”, Lishui boasts 20.76 million acres of forest land, with a forest coverage rate of 81.7%. Its forest carbon storage reaches 65.89 million tons, accounting for nearly a quarter of the provincial total. How can this enormous “carbon potential” be unleashed to turn Lishui’s ecological advantages into drivers of development? Lishui has been pioneering this exploration nationwide.
In 2023, the Zhejiang (Lishui) Eco-Product Trading Platform was officially launched. As the first regional eco-product trading center in Zhejiang, it brings together four major categories of trading products: ecological resource assets, eco-products, green property rights, and others, forming a fully digitalized closed loop for eco-products covering “storage–trading–development–services”.
“The platform addresses issues such as information asymmetry in eco-product trading, idle resources, and high transaction costs, providing professional and convenient services for market entities,” said Fan Wei, head of the Zhejiang (Lishui) Eco-Product Trading Platform. Through the city- and county-level “Lucid Waters and Lush Mountains” cooperatives and village collective companies, ecological resources are stored, developed, and utilized. “Projects with strong foundations and market appeal are directly listed for trading, while fragmented eco-products are bundled and integrated, attracting social capital to participate in resource development and operation, thereby revitalizing ecological assets efficiently.”
Moreover, Lishui has innovatively launched forest carbon sink transactions, achieving a closed loop from storage to trading for Lishui’s forest carbon sinks.
In February 2023, Dajun Township in Jingning County used 60 tons of carbon dioxide forest management carbon sinks to offset all greenhouse gas emissions generated by a conference held in Lishui. This was the first universal benefit project for Lishui’s forest management carbon sinks completed on the Zhejiang (Lishui) Eco-Product Trading Platform. "The transaction amount for this carbon sink was 6,000 yuan. While the amount is small, it marks the realization of a closed loop for Lishui’s forest carbon sinks from storage to trading,” Fan Wei said.
To further boost the activity of forest carbon sink trading, Lishui has also developed the “Carbon Neutrality Together” mini-program on the platform’s forest carbon sink trading section, enhancing the convenience of individual carbon purchases, small-scale carbon buys, and carbon neutrality for events. As of September 12, 2025, the Zhejiang (Lishui) Eco-Product Trading Platform and the “Carbon Neutrality Together” mini-program have facilitated 1,324 forest carbon sink transactions, with a trading volume of 41,000 tons and a transaction value of 3.1093 million yuan. The trading scope has radiated to 10 cities, including Hangzhou, Jiaxing, and Ningbo, and has even achieved cross-provincial transactions.
“The mini-program innovatively offers an ultra-low threshold of ‘10 kg = 1 yuan’ to offset individual carbon footprints. Addressing issues such as inconvenient operations on traditional platforms and high costs for carbon emission calculations, it provides users with free carbon emission calculations and offers end-to-end services for purchasing forest carbon sinks and achieving carbon neutrality,” Fan Wei said.
Eco-products from local areas have not only gained value but have also been monetized as “real money” through the trading platform. In July this year, the province’s first specific regional unit eco-product value (VEP) equity project—the Henggang Village project in Songyang County—was listed on the platform and officially sold for 9.38 million yuan. The project bundled and valued the ancient village’s landscape, ecological environment, and cultural tourism potential as a whole for transaction, marking another significant breakthrough for Lishui in the market-based trading of eco-products.
From the first eco-product transaction to a cumulative transaction value of 14.187 billion yuan, the Zhejiang (Lishui) Eco-Product Trading Platform has matured and is fulfilling its intended role. Today, the platform features 16 categories of eco-products, including forest rights, forest carbon sinks, and VEP. “Dormant” ecological resources are continuously transformed into eco-products with economic value, turning Lishui’s “lucid waters and lush mountains” into tradable and monetizable “golden mountains and silver mountains”.
【Extended Reading】
The Zhejiang (Lishui) Eco-Product Trading Platform, building on national pilot initiatives, adheres to a “government-led, state-owned enterprise-operated, market-driven” model, fully advancing the market-oriented management, development, and trading of eco-products. Since its launch, the platform has listed 30 “Zhejiang Forest Carbon Sink” projects and 8 “Lishui Carbon Universal Benefit” projects. Additionally, the platform focuses on bridging forest carbon sinks with zero-carbon scenarios and ecological damage restoration, assisting 28 institutions in achieving “zero-carbon institution” status and facilitating 68 “zero-carbon events (conferences)” through the “Carbon Neutrality Together” mini-program.
【Expert Commentary】
Ye Xiaoqing, Vice President of the China (Lishui) Lucid Waters and Lush Mountains Institute:
A crucial part of the eco-product value realization mechanism is exploring market-based trading of eco-products to achieve “tradability”, addressing the common challenges of “transaction difficulty” and “monetization difficulty” in realizing the value of eco-products. The establishment and use of the Zhejiang (Lishui) Eco-Product Trading Platform are of core significance as they build a market-based mechanism and bridge for transforming “lucid waters and lush mountains” into “golden mountains and silver mountains”. Through a series of institutional, model, and technological innovations, and by integrating, packaging, promoting, and trading ecological resources, it turns “resources” into “assets”, significantly enhancing the market value and liquidity of ecological resources. It strives to make ecological value measurable, tradable, and monetizable, not only injecting strong momentum into Lishui’s green development but also providing valuable “Lishui experience” for practicing the “Lucid Waters and Lush Mountains” concept nationwide.