Abstract: the beginning of 1990s, there were some theoretical and practical studies on forestry ecocompensation in China. The government promulgated a series of regulations, established forest ecocompensation mechanism. Present problems of legal system of ecological compensation include unclear definition for ecocompensation, limited framework of ecological compensation, lower subsidy standard, simple source of compensation money , and insufficiency of marketbased regime etc. The author holds the viewpoints that a relatively clear and uniform definition for ecocompensation should be established. We should build scientific compensation standards and develop more sources of finance for these schemes. Perfecting legal system can provide better guarantee to promote the institutionalization of forestry ecological compensation. Being the earliest ecocompensation in China, the mechanism of forest ecocompensation can provide experience for ecocompensations in other fields.