Year-to-year ecosystem services supply in conservation contexts in north-eastern Madagascar: Trade-offs between global demands and local needs

Llopis, Jorge C.; Chastonay, Jonas F.; Birrer, Franziska C.; Bär, Roger; Andriatsitohaina, R. Ntsiva N.; Messerli, Peter; Heinimann, Andreas; Zaehringer, Julie G.

doi:10.1016/j.ecoser.2021.101249

Cited by 20 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…Most importantly, however, shifting hill rice cultivation is essential to satisfy subsistence needs, particularly for poorer households who own little or no paddy rice ( 19 ), thus contributing to local food security ( 15 ). These findings are in line with recent research from northeastern Madagascar, which has demonstrated trade-offs between global demands—such as biodiversity conservation—and local needs—such as food-crop production ( 27 ).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%

Land-use trajectories for sustainable land system transformations: Identifying leverage points in a global biodiversity hotspot

Martin

Andrianisaina

Fulgence

et al. 2022

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Sustainable land-system transformations are necessary to avert biodiversity and climate collapse. However, it remains unclear where entry points for transformations exist in complex land systems. Here, we conceptualize land systems along land-use trajectories, which allows us to identify and evaluate leverage points, i.e., entry points on the trajectory where targeted interventions have particular leverage to influence land-use decisions. We apply this framework in the biodiversity hotspot Madagascar. In the northeast, smallholder agriculture results in a land-use trajectory originating in old-growth forests and spanning from forest fragments to shifting hill rice cultivation and vanilla agroforests. Integrating interdisciplinary empirical data on seven taxa, five ecosystem services, and three measures of agricultural productivity, we assess trade-offs and cobenefits of land-use decisions at three leverage points along the trajectory. These trade-offs and cobenefits differ between leverage points: Two leverage points are situated at the conversion of old-growth forests and forest fragments to shifting cultivation and agroforestry, resulting in considerable trade-offs, especially between endemic biodiversity and agricultural productivity. Here, interventions enabling smallholders to conserve forests are necessary. This is urgent since ongoing forest loss threatens to eliminate these leverage points due to path dependency. The third leverage point allows for the restoration of land under shifting cultivation through vanilla agroforests and offers cobenefits between restoration goals and agricultural productivity. The co-occurring leverage points highlight that conservation and restoration are simultaneously necessary to avert collapse of multifunctional mosaic landscapes. Methodologically, the framework highlights the importance of considering path dependency along trajectories to achieve sustainable land-system transformations.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%

Land-use trajectories for sustainable land system transformations: Identifying leverage points in a global biodiversity hotspot

Martin

Andrianisaina

Fulgence

et al. 2022

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Nationally, with only 5.2% of arable land remaining, the 29 million Malagasy residents face increasingly limited options as the human population is predicted to reach 54 million by 2050 (United Nations, 2022). Residents in northeast Madagascar depend heavily on the region's rivers, reefs, seas, forests, and agricultural lands, much of which is now within Madagascar's protected area network (Llopis et al, 2021). Farmers typically grow rice in irrigated lowlands or use traditional shifting agriculture on hillsides in and around protected areas to grow rain-fed rice, tubers, and vegetables (Herrera et al, 2021).…”

Section: Major Threatsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A habitat stronghold on the precipice: A call‐to‐action for supporting lemur conservation in northeast Madagascar

Eppley

Borgerson

Patel³

et al. 2023

American J Primatol

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The northeast of Madagascar is as diverse as it is threatened. The area bordering the Analanjirofo and SAVA regions contains six protected areas and at least 22 lemur species. Many applied research and conservation programs have been established in the region with the aim of ensuring both wildlife and people thrive in the long term. While most of the remaining humid evergreen forest of northeast Madagascar is formally protected, the local human population depends heavily on the land, and unsustainable natural resource use threatens this biodiversity hotspot. Drawing from our collective experiences managing conservation activities and research programs in northeast Madagascar, we discuss the major threats to the region and advocate for eight conservation activities that help reduce threats and protect the environment, providing specific examples from our own programs. These include (1) empowering local conservation actors, (2) ensuring effectively protected habitat, (3) expanding reforestation, (4) establishing and continuing long‐term research and monitoring, (5) reducing food insecurity, (6) supporting environmental education, (7) promoting sustainable livelihoods, and (8) expanding community health initiatives. Lastly, we provide a list of actions that individuals can take to join us in supporting and promoting lemur conservation.

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“…Moreover, cultural services are also provided (i.e., non‐material benefits that contribute to the cultural advancement of people [locally, nationally, and globally], building of knowledge bases, and the spreading of ideas and creativity). There have been a number of comprehensive studies of ecosystem services for Madagascar, especially of forested systems (e.g., Llopis et al, 2021; Portela et al, 2012), but none to our knowledge of open, grassy systems. We can learn a bit about ecosystem services from studies of grassy or savanna systems elsewhere (de Lima et al, 2017; Egoh et al, 2011; Hönigová et al, 2012; Osborne et al, 2018), but there are surprisingly few studies done for open, grassy systems in general (Wangai et al, 2016).…”

Section: Conservation and Management Of Open Grassy Systems In Madaga...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The grassy ecosystems of Madagascar in context: Ecology, evolution, and conservation

Silander,

Bond,

Ratsirarson

2023

Plants People Planet

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Societal Impact StatementMadagascar is famous for its unique forests and their fauna. Most of the island is covered by flammable grassy ecosystems long considered to be of human origin and threatening the remaining forests. Yet new studies show that many plants and animals of the grassy systems are unique to Madagascar and restricted to these open habitats. Open grassy ecosystems have markedly different management requirements from forests and bring different contributions to society. We argue that the grassy ecosystems can benefit Madagascar if understood and managed wisely using expanded knowledge bases that also include collaboration with locals.SummaryUntil recently, nearly all research and interests in Madagascar focused on forested habitats. To help place Madagascar's grassy ecosystems in context, we provide a summary of the origin, development, and evolution of open tropical, C4 grassy ecosystems elsewhere, especially those from Africa; we summarize similarities and differences with the distribution of C3 and C4 grasses in the Malagasy landscape, their plant traits, and inferences on the evolutionary legacy of grasses. We also discuss the animal communities that use and have coevolved in these grassy systems; to help resolve controversies over the pre‐settlement extent of grassy ecosystems, we suggest a variety of complementary geochemical, palaeobotanical, and molecular genetic tools that have been effectively used elsewhere to untangle forest/grassy ecosystem mosaics and the ecological and evolutionary processes that influence them. Many of these tools can and should be employed in Madagascar to fully understand the spatio‐temporal dynamics of open, grassy, and closed forest systems across the island; as regards conservation, we discuss the ecosystem services provided by grassy systems, which are too often ignored in general, not only as a biome, vis‐à‐vis forests, but also for their global importance as a carbon sink and role they play in water management and providing goods to local villagers. We conclude by outlining the necessary research to better manage open ecosystems across Madagascar without threatening endangered forest ecosystems.

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Year-to-year ecosystem services supply in conservation contexts in north-eastern Madagascar: Trade-offs between global demands and local needs

Cited by 20 publications

References 80 publications

Land-use trajectories for sustainable land system transformations: Identifying leverage points in a global biodiversity hotspot

Land-use trajectories for sustainable land system transformations: Identifying leverage points in a global biodiversity hotspot

A habitat stronghold on the precipice: A call‐to‐action for supporting lemur conservation in northeast Madagascar

The grassy ecosystems of Madagascar in context: Ecology, evolution, and conservation

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