Abstract:It is imperative to introduce the mechanism of the payment for ecological services as indispensable complement for the restrictive policy on drinking water source reserve. There are economic and ecological value systems to evaluate the ecosystem services. The payment for ecological services aims to compensate the people who lose their benefits after primarily conserving the ecosystem to assure its well function when two mentioned value systems conflict. The strategy of payment for ecological services can be framed through distinguishing the provider and beneficiary of the services associated with their corresponding value systems. Thus, the payment for the drinking water source reserve services can be regarded as the payment for the functions of water-holding and soil conservation derived from the non-commercial forest. The drinking water source reserve in Wuyishan city is also studied using the opportunity cost of the protector as compensation standard. The results show that from year 2005-2020 the providers should be compensated for 8.977 Million yuan RMB, which can be collected by an extra water fee (0.07yuan RMB/(t·a)) as the theoretical upper limit, while the concrete extra water fee should be determined by the willingness of the payer.