Abstract: The Jiangsu Yancheng Nature Reserve (YNR) is the largest coastal reserve in China, deeming red-crowned cranes (Grus japonensis) and tidal wetland ecosystems as its main protection targets. It is an urgent task to effectively manage and control resource utilization activities and protect the wetland habitat of red-crowned cranes in the YNR. Three target-driven scenarios of harmonized ecological protection and economic development in YNR were designed, and a land use pattern optimization (LUPO) model was used to simulate spatially optimized wetland landscape patterns in YNR once the scenarios were realized. The simulation reveals as follows: (1) Under Scenario A, the reserve has turned large areas of mudflats and smooth cordgrass tidal flats into seepweed tidal flats, thus achieving the ecological target of expanding over 80% suitable habitat for red-crowned crane in the reserve, but has to face a drastic fall of regional annual economic benefit. (2) Under Scenario B, the reserve has large tracts of mudflats, farmlands, and smooth cordgrass tidal flats converted into fishponds, thus realizing the economic goal of raising its regional annual economic benefit by over 40%, but at the cost of decrease of suitable habitat for red-crowned cranes; (3) Under Scenario C, the reserve has converted smooth cordgrass and reed tidal flats in seepweed tidal flats and mudflats and farmlands into fish ponds, thus achieving the ecological target of expanding the area of suitable habitat for red-crowned crane over 40% as well as the economic goal of increasing its regional annual economic benefit by over 20%. Obviously Scenario C is an optimal win-win option.