Based on the survey data of 499 farmers in Sanming, Fujian, the method of propensity score matching was used to measure the income effects of cash compensation and post compensation for farmers. The results show that both cash compensation and post compensation have positive effects on farmers' income. The effect of cash compensation on farmers' income is insignificant, while post compensation has 55.4% and 57% net effect on farmers' total income and per capita income, respectively. Further research found that the two compensation methods had different income effects for poor and non-poor farmers. Cash compensation is not conducive to poor farmers' income, while post compensation has significant positive effects across farmers with different income. In addition, considering the basic mission of ecological forest, it is found that the net effects of cash compensation and post compensation on ecological protection are different. Therefore, scientific planning on compensation methods and compensation standards is a fundamental way to achieve the double effects of ecological protection and farmers' income increase.