Introduction Designing agri-environmental incentives that promote farmers' pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) without weakening culturally embedded motivations remains a central challenge in sustainability governance.Methods Using China's Aohan Dryland Farming System, a FAO-designated Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS), as a theoretically sampled case, this study employs an ordered probit model and heterogeneity analysis of full-time and part-time farmers to examine how cultural identity and perceived economic incentives are associated with farmers' PEBs.Results The results show that direct positive associations are observed for recognition of cultural value and perceived economic incentives, whereas engagement with traditional customs does not exhibit a statistically significant direct association with PEBs. The interaction between subsidy incentives and traditional customs is associated with a pattern consistent with crowding-in, while the interaction between price incentives and cultural value recognition is associated with a pattern consistent with crowding-out. The crowding-in pattern is observed for both full-time and part-time farmers, whereas the crowding-out pattern associated with price incentives appears only among full-time farmers.Discussion The findings highlight the complex dual role of economic incentives in culturally rich heritage regions and emphasize the need to promote environmental behaviors through supportive subsidy design, the integration of price premiums with heritage-value branding, and the adoption of differentiated incentive strategies based on livelihood types.