How economic choices affect livelihoods in Madagascar's park-adjacent communities and what it means for conservation and development

While conservation livelihood programs aim to reduce both poverty and unsustainable land-based economies, interventions often remain dependent on land availability. However, land is a limited resource, especially for those living near the world's protected areas. Therefore, to plan effective conservation and livelihood programs, it is important to understand how livelihood decisions are made under land limitations and their effects on human welfare and natural resource use. We interviewed 892 people living within 3 km of Madagascar's Anjanaharibe-Sud Special Reserve to examine: (1) how income is earned while navigating land limitations and easy access to both forests and markets; (2) the correlations between different income-earning strategies, land and natural resource use, and human wellbeing; and (3) the barriers and opportunities for livelihood interventions within this connected rural system. We found that families relied on diverse income-earning strategies best characterized by salaried labor and entrepreneurship and the sale of dual-subsistence and cash crops. Families with insufficient land relied heavily on salaried labor and entrepreneurship. However, this was not a choice of preferred market- over land-based income opportunities, but instead an insufficient fallback strategy that increased poverty and natural resource extraction. Entrepreneurship appears to be constrained by insufficient access to both capital goods (incl. infrastructure) and human capital (incl. education), limiting opportunities for skilled labor. Until entrepreneurship and skilled labor opportunities in park-adjacent Madagascar are improved, families will continue to face strong incentives to clear forests for agriculture and rely on the natural resources within them. Culturally-aware livelihoods interventions which support non-land-based production are urgently needed to secure a sustainable future for Madagascar's people and forests alike.