Abstract: Under the background of the green development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, based on the evolutionary game theory, the game model of the upstream and downstream governments of the Three Gorges Basin and the central ecological compensation behavior are constructed to analyze the interests appeal and compensation behaviors among the three parties, so as to have a complex interest game relationship in the Yangtze River and analyze the cases of ecological compensation in the Three Gorges Basin. The research shows that without the restriction of central government, it is difficult for the upstream and downstream governments in the Three Gorges Basin to cooperate with each other to carry out ecological compensation. The introduction of the central reward and punishment mechanism to control the environmental benefits of the governments can improve the efficiency of ecological compensation and management in the Three Gorges Basin. The Vensim software is used to further verify the optimal decision-making of the central government under different conditions, which can provide reference for the decision-making of the Three Gorges Basin.

Key words: Three Gorges Basin, evolutionary game, ecological compensation, system dynamics, simulation