A study on heterogeneous farmers’ forestry production behavior, performance and differences in southern collective forest areas: based on 7 years of continuous observation data in Hunan Province

Southern collective forest areas are a major component of China’s forestry industry. However, the contradiction between farmers’ pursuit of economic performance and the government’s focus on ecological performance has become increasingly prominent in these areas. This study divides farmers into two categories based on their household forest land’s functional attributes: commercial forest farmers and public welfare forest farmers. It empirical testing the impact and differences of the two types of farmers’ afforestation behavior, management behavior, and logging behavior on forestry economic performance and ecological performance. The study shows that after forest tenure reform, the economic performance of commercial forest farmers is generally higher than that of public welfare forest farmers, the economic performance of commercial forest farmers was 3.9 times higher than that of public forest farmers in 2013, But both types of farmers’ economic performance exhibit a decreasing trend after 2014 and eventually converge. In contrast, the ecological performance of forestry after forest tenure reform is significant, with slight differences in the evaluation of ecological performance indicators between the two types of farmers. Furthermore, the study reveals significant differences between the two types of heterogeneous farmers’ forestry production behavior on economic and ecological performance. Commercial forest farmers’ forestation behavior negatively affects economic performance at 10% confidence level, whereas management behavior positively affects economic and ecological performance all at 1% confidence level. On the other hand, logging behavior has a positive impact on economic performance at 1% confidence level but a negative impact on ecological performance. Public welfare forest farmers’ forestry production behavior all at 1% confidence level has a more significant impact on ecological performance, with logging behavior positively impacting both economic and ecological performance.