In contrast to global trends, smallholder subsistence farming continues to play a major role in Madagascar’s forest-agriculture frontiers. Here, knowledge on sustainable land use management to aid biodiversity conservation is urgently needed. In subproject 8 we address this research gap by assessing the value of small-scale vanilla production for biodiversity conservation in Northeastern Madagascar. Using butterflies, ants and herbaceous plants as focus taxa, we perform a biodiversity comparison of the prevalent land use systems in the region, and assess predation patterns as a proxy for ecosystem integrity and ecosystem service provision. Highlighting the importance of land-conversion history for local biodiversity, we contrast biodiversity of differently managed vanilla plots (fallow derived vs. forest derived). https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/529181.html