Prioritizing key biodiversity areas in Madagascar by including data on human pressure and ecosystem services

Establishment of protected area networks to protect species and habitats has been one of the most effective conservation tools used around the world. On this premise Madagascar is planning to triple its protected areas by 2012. Recent studies have addressed the design of this new network in order to optimize biodiversity conservation. However, given the limited time, available resources and looming imminent threats both to biodiversity and to ecosystem services, we argue that we need to prioritize this process by including human related factors. We developed a framework and three composite indices, incorporating human related threats, ecosystem services and biological measures, which we used to identify priorities within the developing protected area network of Madagascar. In particular, we examined data on human population, roads, agricultural suitability and fire prevalence, alongside measures of hydrological and biological importance. Sixteen key biodiversity sites, which were not formally gazetted in the first round of designation, emerged as especially important for both biodiversity and ecosystem services. Two of these unprotected sites contain endemic frog species under imminent threat of extinction. Six of the sites we highlighted were subject to high-human pressure, while we detected limited human activity in the other ten. Our framework is computationally straight-forward and applicable to other regions of the world, and could be applied alongside community and stakeholder consultation.