Habitat suitability mapping for a high-value non-timber forest product: A case study of <i>Rauvolfia serpentina</i>

Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are essential for rural livelihoods but often threatened by deforestation and overexploitation. Rauvolfia serpentina is a critical NTFP species; however, there have been no studies on the impact of future climate change its potential habitat distribution. We used Maxent modeling approach to address this knowledge gap determine species’ current suitability under scenarios. The areas more suitable occurrence were mainly located near southwestern coastal regions Myanmar India. Based our predictions, these ‘very high’ likely decrease in 2070 both low high CO2 emission scenarios, indicating vulnerability change. This species highly valued study region; therefore, such reduction may result reductions production economic benefits dependent populations. Our findings can help define conserve containing natural habitats high-valued species.