Shifting cultivation remains an important land system in many tropical landscapes, but transitions away from shifting cultivation are increasingly common. So far, our knowledge on the social–economic and environmental drivers and consequences of such shifting cultivation transitions is incomplete, focusing on certain transitions, drivers, consequences or regions. Here, we use an archetype approach, validated through systematically identified literature, to describe eight archetypes encompassing the transitions from shifting cultivation to (1) perennial plantation crops, (2) permanent agroforestry, (3) regrown secondary forest, (4) permanent non‐perennial crops, (5) pasture, (6) wood plantation, (7) non‐cultivated non‐forested land and (8) restored secondary forest (ordered in decreasing prevalence). We then discuss social–economic and environmental factors favouring and disfavouring each archetype. This reveals that higher expected land rents, resulting from increased market access, crop price surges, secure land tenure and state interventions, are the main drivers of archetypical transitions to perennial plantation crops, permanent agroforestry, permanent non‐perennial crops and wood plantation. The prioritisation of other activities, both on‐ and off‐farm, favours transitions to regrown secondary forest and non‐cultivated non‐forested land, depending on plot‐level environmental conditions. Active forest restoration is typically implemented through state or NGO interventions. Turning to the consequences of archetypical transitions for biodiversity, the environment and livelihoods, we find that positive environmental outcomes prevail for transitions to permanent agroforestry, regrown secondary forest and restored secondary forest. Negative environmental outcomes dominate for four typically economically profitable transitions to perennial plantation crops, permanent non‐perennial crops, pasture and wood plantation. Non‐income‐related social–economic outcomes are heterogeneous within all archetypes and highly context‐dependent. Our archetype analysis shows that shifting cultivation transitions are diverse in themselves, in their drivers and their consequences. This calls for a critical and contextualised appraisal of the continuation of shifting cultivation, as well as the transition away from it, when designing land system policies that work for people and nature. Read the freePlain Language Summaryfor this article on the Journal blog.

In north-eastern Madagascar, maintenance of biodiversity competes with expansion of land for agriculture and mining. The concept of “telecoupling” provides a framework for analysis of distant actors and institutions that influence local land use decisions. However, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the extent of telecoupling of land governance in north-eastern Madagascar and a lack of evidence regarding its role in driving land use change and land competition. Using a descriptive Social Network Analysis, we disentangled distant interactions between actors in terms of flows and institutions. Our findings show that the domains of economic and environmental interactions are dominated by actors from different sectors that have claims on the same land but generally do not interact. Distant influences occurring via remote flows of goods, money, and institutions serve to reinforce local land competition. Balancing economic and environmental land claims for more sustainable regional development in north-eastern Madagascar requires collaboration between actors across sectors, scales, and domains.

Tropical forest frontier areas support the well‐being of local populations in myriad ways. Not only do they provide the material basis for people's livelihoods, they also sustain socio‐cultural foundations through relational values. They host some of the most biodiverse ecosystems and largest carbon stocks on the planet, and are thus a focus of global conservation efforts. They are also a prime location for the production of many global agricultural commodities. These dynamics—often intertwined—may trap local populations between powerful interests, with the potential to affect their well‐being. We conducted 100 structured interviews in four biodiversity‐rich landscapes of north‐eastern Madagascar to investigate how multi‐dimensional human well‐being is affected by the recent establishment of protected areas and surge in cash crop prices. We asked households about their satisfaction—and changes in satisfaction—with locally relevant well‐being components, mapping their answers through Nussbaum's Central Capabilities approach. We also investigated the cultural significance of key natural resources beyond the material benefits they provide. All issues were explored along four variables: site, main source of rice, gender and household land use portfolio. Our findings are as follows: first, human capabilities are interconnected and mutually interdependent, with relational values linking many of them. Second, subjective accounts of well‐being are influenced by cognitive biases, such as treadmill effects, adaptive preferences and recency bias. Third, while households perceived a positive influence of protected areas, those most reliant on forest land and products held a more negative view of conservation interventions. And fourth, while households more engaged in commercial agriculture may be benefitting economically from the recent increase in cash crop prices, these very dynamics might be leading to trade‐offs between capabilities. This is most notably so for the Bodily Health capability (e.g. greater spending on housing) and Affiliation and Bodily Integrity (i.e. worsening social relations and security). These insights highlight the importance of addressing the multiple dimensions of well‐being when assessing the impacts of conservation and economic dynamics in forest frontier populations. Particular attention should be paid to the relational values ascribed to the natural resources the communities rely on. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Many social-ecological systems are in an unsustainable state. Bringing together disjunct published findings on complex interactions in social-ecological systems may enable the identification of leverage points for transformations towards sustainability. However, such interdisciplinary synthesis studies on specific regional social-ecological systems remain rare. Here, we pair a review of systematically identified studies with a cross-impact analysis to create an interactive visual social-ecological systems synthesis on conflicts and synergies between land use, biodiversity conservation, and human wellbeing in north-eastern Madagascar. The interactive visual synthesis (https://visualsynthesis.wyssacademy.org) depicts an archetypical regional landscape with 22 factors comprising physical landscape elements, ecosystem services, wellbeing, human activities, and telecouplings. To understand the connections between these factors, we assess directional causal links based on literature sources. The visual synthesis shows that research has so far focused on links between land use and biodiversity while links to human wellbeing were studied more seldomly. We then identify chains and cycles that emerge from the links between factors and rate them based on their plausibility and relevance. All eight top-rated chains and cycles relate to subsistence and commercial agriculture, revealing promising leverage points at which interventions could improve outcomes for biodiversity and wellbeing. In sum, we show how interactive visual syntheses can be a useful way to make disjunct published findings on regional social-ecological systems more accessible, to find research gaps, and to identify leverage points for sustainability transformations.