The participation costs model,including the opportunity costs,transaction costs and implementation costs is constructed to determine the ecological compensation standards in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.Based on the efficiency of ecological compensation funds,we construct an applied site selection tool,which takes into account three variables that vary in space:environmental services provided,risks of losing those services,and participation costs,with town as a basic unit,to determine and choose the scope of ecological compensation.On the basis of the model,this study classifies Gannan into five compensation zones by cluster analysis:priority compensation zones,sub-priority compensation zones,secondary compensation zones,critical compensation zones and potential compensation zones,and analyzes the characteristics of the above five types of compensation zones.Besides,Gini coefficient for ecological compensation payments is designed according to the conception of Gini coefficient and used to evaluate the fairness levels of payments distribution in the communities receiving payments and compensation zones.The evaluation model of compensation funds efficiency is built to assess the efficiency of five compensation areas at different levels.Results are drawn as follows:(1) The opportunity cost (621.3 yuan/hm2·a) and the grassland ecosystem services value (4776.4 yuan/hm2·a) are taken as upper and lower limits of compensation criterion,combined with the participation costs of farmers and herdsmen,and the compensation standard of grassland ecosystem is 1999.8 yuan/hm2·a.(2) (2) The five types of compensation zones coincide with the order of efficient compensation as well as the order of the ecological importance.The main priority compensation zones of grassland ecosystem cover larger pasture,the grassland sizes of towns compensated are larger,but few participants are involved,however secondary compensation zones cover nearly half of the grassland ecosystem,towns and the population.In terms of spatial distribution,the main priority compensation zones are mainly in pastoral areas,while non-priority zones are mainly in the farming-pastoral areas,agricultural areas and forest areas.(3) There are great differences in the distribution of compensation payments among participants (suppliers of grassland ecosystem services),however the payments are evenly distributed in compensation zones of grassland ecosystem.(4) The order of compensation efficiency of grassland ecosystem is consistent with priorities of compensation areas.The priority compensation zones is most efficient,and their payments are more than 14 times (38.18) those of the environmental benefits for each yuan in the critical zones,followed by the sub-priority zones,being 21.02 for each yuan.