Data för: Communities with diverse subsistence needs require a variety of functional tree traits

The dataset consists of three files: tree species preference of both men and women and plant trait data. The present study was conducted at five sites across the eastern humid forest of Madagascar. We conducted separate focus groups for men and women. The first and second data materials summarize tree species preferences for each of nine use categories - charcoal, firewood, beam, roof, plank, furniture, spade, pestle and mortar – from men’s and women’s focus groups, respectively. For each use category, tree species were ranked in order of preference, and the value for each use category represents the mean ranking of each species. A higher ranking indicates greater preference for the species. The third data file contains the trait data for each plant species, including bark thickness, height, diameter at 1.3m height (DBH), specific leaf area (SLA), and wood specific gravity (WSG). It also includes the average distance (measured in walking time, converted by us to meters) that would be required for community members to harvest that species, if they were to do so. We sampled the traits of 3 - 6 adult individuals per species to obtain an average value. The bark data from Ranomafana was collected at an earlier date by Onja Razafindratsima and Kerry Brown. In the study we used additional trait data from Ranomafana that had been previously published, so we have not included it here - readers can find links to all datasets in the article.