Provisioning services decline for both people and Critically Endangered wildlife in a rainforest transformation landscape

The loss and degradation of forests and other ecosystems worldwide threaten both global biodiversity and the livelihoods of people who use natural resources. Understanding how natural resource use impacts landscape provisioning services for both people and wildlife is thus critical for designing comprehensive resource management strategies. We used data from community focus groups, botanical plots and an inventory of plant species consumed by the Critically Endangered red‐ruffed lemur ( Varecia rubra ) to assess the availability of key provisioning services for people and endemic wildlife on the Masoala Peninsula, a rainforest transformation landscape, in northeastern Madagascar (Masoala National Park and 13 surrounding communities). We constructed Poisson regression mixed models to evaluate the impact of community factors (i.e. community population size, plot distance to community) and changes over time on the count and species richness of timber trees, medicinal plants and red‐ruffed lemur food trees within botanical plots. Over three‐quarters of all plant species could be used for at least one purpose by local communities ( n = 238 species). Of the 59 V. rubra food tree species, only 15% had no reported human use. Timber and ruffed lemur food tree availability declined both with community population size and time and were predicted to be lower outside of Masoala National Park. In contrast, medicinal plant availability was not strongly predicted by any tested factors. Provisioning service availability also differed strongly across sites, suggesting that additional, untested proxies of human pressure likely also have an effect. Our results highlight the importance of evaluating natural resource availability from a community‐based perspective and by resource purpose to inform forest landscape restoration efforts that can support both people and wildlife. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Ny fahapotehan'ny ala sy ny tontolo iainana maneran'izao tontolo izao dia manambana ny zava‐boahary rehetra eran‐tany sy ny fiveloman'ny olona izay mampiasa azy. Noho izany dia mila fantarina ny fiantraikan'izany fampiasana harena voajanahary izany amin'ny tolotra izay omen'ity fanarany, na ho an'ny olombelona, na ho an'ny biby na ho an'ny zava‐maniry, mba ahafahana mamolavola paikadim‐pitantanana an'io harena io. Nampiasa ireo tahirin‐kevitra voahangona teny anivon'ireo vondron'olona ifotony, sy teknika « plot botanique » ary fani