Economic studies on human-wildlife conflicts often apply valuation methods to show that biodiversity conservation generates benefits also from an economic point of view. These studies are useful, but by focusing solely on the monetary benefits of conservation, they neglect that conservation often leads to costs for others which may be the very reason for the conflict. In the current study, we combined an assessment of the marginal benefits of conservation with an assessment of its marginal costs and were thus able to derive what economists call the “optimal level of conservation”. Our focus was the conflict between ecotourism and farming activities and our case study was the conservation of wintering cranes in the Agamon Park in the Hula Valley, Israel. We estimated the marginal benefits of crane conservation to tourism by using the travel-cost method, and the marginal costs by collecting cost data of guarding the agricultural fields and providing alternative feeding options for the cranes. We found that the optimal number of wintering cranes in the Agamon Park, in terms of net benefits to society, is 40,600. We also found that the entrance fee to the reserve, needed to fund the costs of protection from the cranes, is 6.20 ILS (1.88 USD). Our study may serve as a blueprint for identifying and designing policy solutions, using an economic perspective, to conflicts between ecotourism and farming which exist in many protected areas around the world.

人类与野生动物冲突的经济学研究通常采用估值方法来表明生物多样性保护也能从经济角度产生效益。这些研究很有用，但由于只关注保护的金钱利益，他们忽视了保护往往会给其他人带来成本，这可能正是冲突的原因。在当前的研究中，我们将对保护的边际收益的评估与其边际成本的评估相结合，从而能够得出经济学家所说的“最佳保护水平”。我们的重点是生态旅游和农业活动之间的冲突，我们的案例研究是以色列胡拉谷阿加蒙公园越冬鹤的保护。我们使用旅行成本法估算了鹤类保护对旅游业的边际收益，并通过收集保护农田和为鹤类提供替代喂养方案的成本数据估算了边际成本。我们发现，就社会净效益而言，阿加蒙公园越冬鹤的最佳数量为 40,600 只。我们还发现保护区的入场费是 6.20 以色列新谢克尔（1.88 美元），用于支付保护起重机的费用。我们的研究可以作为一个蓝图，用于从经济角度确定和设计政策解决方案，以解决世界上许多保护区存在的生态旅游与农业之间的冲突。我们发现，就社会净效益而言，阿加蒙公园越冬鹤的最佳数量为 40,600 只。我们还发现保护区的入场费是 6.20 以色列新谢克尔（1.88 美元），用于支付保护起重机的费用。我们的研究可以作为一个蓝图，用于从经济角度确定和设计政策解决方案，以解决世界上许多保护区存在的生态旅游与农业之间的冲突。我们发现，就社会净效益而言，阿加蒙公园越冬鹤的最佳数量为 40,600 只。我们还发现保护区的入场费是 6.20 以色列新谢克尔（1.88 美元），用于支付保护起重机的费用。我们的研究可以作为一个蓝图，用于从经济角度确定和设计政策解决方案，以解决世界上许多保护区存在的生态旅游与农业之间的冲突。