Provided in the present invention are a network element and a protection method for ring network protection, the method comprising: upon the detection of a fault in a neighboring link, determining one or more faulty ring networks; performing protection switching on the faulty ring networks; encapsulating the ring network identifiers of the faulty ring networks in a protocol message; sending the protocol message to neighboring network elements on the faulty ring networks so that the network elements on the faulty ring networks can receive the protocol message and determine the faulty ring networks. The network identifier is an identifier owned by each ring network and used for differentiating from other ring networks; and the protocol message is used for indicating the network elements on the faulty ring networks to perform protection switching. The embodiment of the present invention provides the network element and the method for ring network protection, service logic separation and differentiated service among multiple rings on a single link are realized through the ring network identifiers, and nodes on the ring networks are coordinated to compete the protection switching of the ring networks, so as to improve the reliability of ring network protection.