Since 1996, contractual forest management involving the local population has been proposed as a solution to deforestation and poverty in Madagascar. This article highlights the way in which two contrasting farming systems can be adapted to conservation constraints without threatening sustainability. The authors show that farmers' adaptation capacities are heterogeneous among local communities and that a knowledge of the factors influencing this variability can help in the design of guidance for farms to enable them to develop sustainably in line with current perceptions of agriculture's role in land management and forest conservation.