How to Promote Sustainable Bamboo Forest Management: An Empirical Study from Small-Scale Farmers in China

Abstract

Bamboo is an important agroforestry and forest plant managed and utilized by rural communities in some countries in the Asia Pacific region, which can generate various benefits to meet social and environmental needs. In rural areas of China, as a large number of forest land management rights have been allocated to small-scale farmers, the willingness of small-scale farmers to reinvest in bamboo forest management has become a key factor for bamboo forest ecosystems to be able to sustainably supply quality ecosystem services. Therefore, it is necessary to answer the question of how to enhance small-scale farmers’ willingness to reinvest in bamboo forest management in the current policy and market context. Combining the prospect theory, the mindsponge theory, the theory of planned behavior (TPB), and the technology acceptance model (TAM), this study constructs theoretical models of perceived property rights security, perceived bamboo forest certification, government support, group decision making, risk perception, perceived value, geographic conditions, and resource endowment affecting willingness to reinvest in bamboo forest management. Based on 1090 questionnaires from a field study in Fujian, China, in 2021, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the theoretical model. The results show that, under the current policy and market environment, government support is the key to enhance small-scale farmers’ willingness to reinvest in bamboo forest management, and their perception of ecological certification also has a facilitating effect on small-scale farmers’ willingness to reinvest in bamboo forest management, in which risk perception plays a significant mediating role. The government can enhance small-scale farmers’ willingness to reinvest in bamboo forest management by maintaining stable land property rights policies, increasing the publicity and promotion of bamboo forest certification, and enhancing information exchange among farmers.