Abstract:
This paper assesses tourists’ preferences for elephant conservation and the farmers preferences for compensation for
the crop damage caused by wild elephants using dichotomous double bounded contingent valuation method. This study
employs 218 international tourists to seek to estimate maximum willingness to pay for nature conservation. Besides, 439
farmers interviewed to seek their minimum will compensation for their crop damaged caused by wild elephants and
coexistence with wildlife. We find that tourists would be willing to pay more on elephant conservation and farmers prefer
compensation for their crop damage from tourism receipts. This study enlightened the coexistence and wildlife
stewardship feasible from mutual agreed upon conservation via tourism receipts and willingness to accept compensation
for the tolerance and coexistence with wildlife to achieve long-term conservation goal.
