Abstract: Wetland ecological compensation is one of the most important policy instruments to protect the wetlands and promote ecological civilization in China. Based on the general theoretical framework of ecological compensation, this paper presents a comprehensive analysis on the core issues of wetland ecological compensation in the Poyang Lake, i.e. compensation providers and beneficiaries, compensation rate and its differentiation, compensation vehicles and conditionality. The research show that the estimated compensation rate was 2 503.39 yuan·hm^-2·a^-1. The compensation rate is better to be differentiated by factors such as the extent of damages of crops resulted from the migrant birds protected in the wetland, the distance between the farmland and the wetland of the lake, the farmland quality etc. Among these factors, the most crucial one is the loss rate of crops in the farmland due to protection of wild birds with the wetlands as their habitat. Low rate of compensation, low penalty costs on noncompliances and low presence of enforcement are the root causes of the weak regime. Regarding compensation approach, it is necessary to combine multiple ways of compensation, or choose individual ways of compensation in phases. In order to improve the wetland ecological compensation program, it is needed to have clarified compensation beneficiaries and a upgraded compensation rate. It is imperative to fully consider the heterogeneity of farmlands and opportunity costs of protecting the wetland in differentiating the compensation, pay greater attention to the "conditionality" of compensation, and balance the equity and efficiency in the compensation program.