There is global archaeological evidence that demonstrates the importance of past land-use practices in fostering biodiversity and ecological productivity in the present. As such, history suggests that human subsistence activity may be integral to sustainable ecosystem functioning. The ability to understand the connection between historic land-use and ecological change is invaluable for local communities, state governments, and international organizations, as the consequences of removing integral species from an ecosystem can be catastrophic. I have several ongoing projects that seek to examine how ancient human land-use practices impact ecosystem functioning over time, up to and including the modern day. These projects span Madagascar, the American Southeast, and islands in Polynesia. Part of this program is attempting to develop new approaches that merge the social, geoppatial and environmental sciences to examine the cumulative impacts of human land-use strategies on biodiversity and ecological productivity.