Data and R-scripts for "Land-use trajectories for sustainable land system transformations: identifying leverage points in a global biodiversity hotspot" (V2)

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, spanning forest fragments, and reaching 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 co-benefits of land-use decisions at three leverage points along the trajectory. These trade-offs and co-benefits 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 co-benefits between restoration goals and agricultural productivity. The co-occurring leverage points highlight that conservation and restoration are simultaneously necessary. Methodologically, the framework shows how leverage points can be identified, evaluated, and harnessed for land system transformations under the consideration of path-dependency along trajectories.