Involving local communities in ecosystem service research can improve the relevance, quality and, ultimately, outcomes of natural resource management. Local engagement can also contribute to solutions to ecosystem management challenges by diversifying the range of options, and contextualizing their applicability. The benefits to local communities of ecosystem service-based policies relative to other interventions, such as oil palm development, are therefore best understood from the perspectives of the local communities themselves. We used observations, focus group discussions and interviews in four villages along Belayan river, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, to explore how ecosystems are perceived by local communities in different oil-palm development contexts. We also used novel, table-top role-playing games to understand how these communities make land-use management decisions to meet their livelihood's needs. The main livelihood activity differed across these villages, which were either a fishing community, oil palm smallholder communities, or a forest-dependent community. Perceptions about ecosystem services varied across villages, though three services were perceived to be crucial in all four villages, namely fish provision, water quality, and land availability. These services can be a common concern entry point for discussions on landscape management. Despite common recognition of the negative impacts of oil palm development on these crucial services, all communities are nevertheless choosing to expand oil palm. This was evident in the game sessions, were most players chose to expand oil-palm in their landscapes. A wide array of direct and indirect drivers were identified by communities as underlying this trend, including social influence, financial capital, ecological factors, and subsidies from local government. Engaging local policymakers and oil palm companies with local people from the beginning is essential if crucial and widely recognized ecosystem service