Data from: Bird diversity and endemism along a land-use gradient in Madagascar: the conservation value of vanilla agroforests

Land-use change is the most important driver of biodiversity loss
worldwide and particularly so in the tropics, where natural habitats are
transformed into large-scale monocultures or heterogeneous landscape
mosaics of largely unknown conservation value. Using birds as an indicator
taxon, we evaluated the conservation value of a landscape mosaic in
north-eastern Madagascar, a biodiversity hotspot and the center of global
vanilla production. We assessed bird species richness and composition by
conducting point counts across seven prevalent land-use types (forest- and
fallow-derived vanilla agroforests, woody and herbaceous fallow that are
part of a shifting cultivation system, rice paddy, forest fragment and
contiguous old-growth forest). We find that old-growth forest had the
highest species richness, driven by a high share of endemics. Species
richness and community composition in forest-derived vanilla agroforest
was similar to forest fragment, whereas fallow-derived vanilla agroforest
was most comparable to woody fallow. The open land-use types herbaceous
fallow and rice paddy had fewest species. Across forest fragment, vanilla
agroforests and woody fallow, endemic bird species richness was positively
correlated to landscape-scale forest cover. We conclude that both fallow-
and forest-derived vanilla agroforests play an important but contrasting
role for bird conservation in the landscape: Fallow-derived agroforests
are less valuable but take fallow land out of the shifting cultivation
cycle, possibly preventing further degradation. Conversely, forest-derived
agroforests contribute to forest degradation but may avoid total loss of
forest fragments. Considering the land-use history of agroforests may thus
be a promising avenue for future research beyond the case of vanilla.