The Influence of Farmers’ Cognition on Forest Land Transfer Behavior: A Case Study of Chengdu City

Abstract

In the context of China’s forest rights reform, promoting forest land circulation is the key to revitalizing forest land resources and promoting the development of the forestry industry. Based on the theoretical analysis of the effect of farmers’ cognition on forest land transfer behavior, data from 790 farmers in typical areas of Chengdu were used for empirical testing with the binary logit model. At the same time, the effects of the cognitive differences of the farmers with different education levels on forest land circulation are discussed. Finally, appropriate instrumental variables were selected to modify the model, and the IV probit model was used to test the endogeneity of the model. The results showed that the (1) farmers’ cognition had a significant positive effect on the forest land transfer behavior. Among them, in the order of the degree of impact, were the following: ecological cognition, policy cognition, risk cognition, social regulation, and benefit cognition. (2) Among the groups with different education levels, farmers with lower education levels will consider more aspects than farmers with higher education levels when choosing to transfer forest land. By broadening the research into the cognitive composition of farmers, this study deepens our understanding of the influence of farmers’ cognition on forest land transfer behavior. Moreover, it is found that Chinese farmers have strong ecological rationality in addition to economic rationality, and ecological cognition plays a greater role in forest land transfer behavior than benefit cognition, which is of considerable significance for further research on forest land transfer behavior.

Tourism Development and Rural Land Transfer-Out: Evidence from China Family Panel Studies

“…For example, the land transfer effect of non-farm employment differs according to the gender of the employee [28], while the distance from employment also plays a crucial role in land transfer decisions [29]. Another strand of research focuses on micro-characteristics such as households, household heads, and communities [7,30,31]. Moreover, institutional arrangements such as land ownership reform and public pension schemes significantly impact land transfer [6,32].…”

Decision-Making Mechanism of Farmers in Land Transfer Processes Based on Sustainable Livelihood Analysis Framework: A Study in Rural China

“…By combing through the relevant literature, it is easy to find that current research on farmers' land transfer behavior mainly focuses on the scale of land transfer [16], land transfer mode [14], land transfer system reform [31], land transfer willingness and behavior [32][33][34][35], factors influencing land transfer behavior [36][37][38], land transfer performance [31,39], etc. Through analysis, it can be found that scholars have carried out richer research on land transfer behavior, which clearly shows that land transfer has changed the relationship between farmers and land.…”