Estimating the marginal cost of nature conservation: evidence from Israel

Contrary to many studies regarding the efficient use of resources that measure the marginal cost of nature conservation by looking at a specific objective and asks about efficient way to achieve it, this article tries to estimate the (marginal) cost of nature conservation in a more flexible way. Instead of looking at a specific objective and then not being able to compare different objectives, we take an approach that is based on experts’ valuation of increased satisfaction from nature conservation. We trace the marginal cost of conservation from their answers and use official cost statistics. Officials in the Israeli Nature and Parks Authority (NPA) were surveyed to determine the activities required to increase the level of nature conservation in two districts of the NPA as well as nationwide. We determined the costs of these proposed activities, and subsequently were able to calculate the total cost and marginal cost of conservation efforts. When operating on a limited budget, conservation authorities can use these schedules as an additional tool to help determine the efficiency of different proposed activities both on a regional scale and nationwide, and to ensure the sustainability of the resulting conservation. In addition, our results demonstrate the existence of economies of scale in nature conservation, and the benefit of both bottom-up and top-down decision processes in nature conservation.