The global use of antimicrobial chemicals drastically increased during and after the COVID-19 pandemic owing to heightened awareness of personal and surface hygiene needs. Disinfectants, especially chlorine-based disinfectants (CBDs), were extensively used for surface and equipment decontamination in the domestic, industrial, veterinary and healthcare sectors during the heights of the pandemic. The increased use of disinfectants has resulted in their increased discharge into municipal wastewater systems and surface waters. Our Perspective article considers the One Health challenges associated with the increased discharge of disinfectants into wastewater. One Health is a collaborative approach that ensures the well-being of people, animals and the environment. Wastewater is a common endpoint to the many interactions between people, animals and their environment. The potential One Health challenges and knowledge gaps associated with the constant discharge of low but sublethal concentrations of CBDs into wastewater are discussed. The data gaps point to the risks associated with the unregulated use of CBDs and need for their judicial use.

India, as the world’s most populous country, and with a substantial urban population, requires strategic development to mitigate the risks of urban pluvial flooding in the context of a changing climate. Rapid urbanization increases the presence of impervious surfaces, and climate change effects bring intense, frequent and long-duration rainfall events in India, which magnify urban flooding. Implementing sustainable urban drainage solutions (SUDSs) would mitigate stormwater flood risks, but India has yet to adopt this approach; instead, it relies on traditional drainage infrastructure, despite increasing population indices and an extended yearly rainfall season. Here, we highlight the existing scenario, the challenges and the way forward towards implementing SUDSs in India. To attain SUDSs, city-specific drainage-related challenges need to be identified through problem tree analysis, co-creation with stakeholders of a shared vision for sustainable urban drainage and the design of actionable pathways and experimental approaches for implementing interventions and refining practical indicators. These actions could collectively provide a roadmap for achieving resilient SUDSs.

Collaborative governance among multiple stakeholders is typically essential for conserving complex social-ecological systems. Mexico’s ‘biocultural landscapes’ – a territorial governance initiative – may be seen as pioneering models to promote this. However, actual outcomes depend on the initial conditions, institutional design, leadership and details of the collaborative process. We used a mixed-methods approach combining social network analysis and semi-structured interviews to analyse the structure of the collaboration network within Mexico’s Sierra Occidental Biocultural Landscape (SOBL). Our findings revealed a sparse, low-reciprocity network dominated by a few public managers, indicating potential power imbalances and challenges to building trust. Stakeholder interviews showed misalignments with theoretical collaborative governance including power imbalances, limited inclusiveness and a lack of trust among participants. While the SOBL has achieved collaborative results, such as the community forest fire brigades and the development of land management plans, achieving its full potential as a model for biocultural conservation requires addressing power dynamics and building a more equitable governance structure.

Trophy hunting (TH) is a form of wildlife use in which individuals pay to hunt under regulated conditions and retain selected body parts as trophies. Tanzania permits TH in areas with different land-use designations, covering diverse habitats. However, human activities such as settlement, agriculture and livestock grazing can threaten habitats and wildlife populations, particularly as revenue from TH declines. Using satellite data from between 2013 and 2023, we quantified changes in functional area and land cover across 15 hunting blocks in northern Tanzania. Over this period, functional area in hunting blocks decreased by c. 22.4% in Game Controlled Areas (GCAs) and by c. 18.0% in Open Areas (OAs), attributed to human encroachment. Longido North GCA experienced the most substantial land-cover change, with a 76% increase in dense vegetation. An analysis comparing the 2013–2019 and 2019–2023 data revealed consistent shrinkages in grassland and mixed and dense vegetation within the Longido North GCA, Masai OA and Irkishbor OA hunting blocks. Although individual land-cover losses in the given periods remained below 50% (our threshold for major habitat loss), these cumulative changes reduce habitat suitability, posing risks to biodiversity and the sustainability of TH. This study reveals the extent of human pressures on hunting blocks and calls for integrated regional planning, active management and targeted conservation strategies.

Sustainable management of watersheds to secure freshwater resources and maintain ecological stability relies on adopting land-use strategies supporting diverse ecosystem services through natural processes. This necessitates systematic evaluation of prospective land-use practices and their associated costs and benefits. We conducted a comprehensive economic evaluation of pro-watershed land-use options, focusing on a well-recognized agroforestry system with alternative organic cultivation in the Navnera watershed in Rajasthan, India. We adopted the ‘total economic valuation’ framework, using the revealed preference approach for monetary evaluation and modelling indirect benefits primarily through Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST). Our findings indicate that the total economic value of ecosystem services in this watershed has the potential to increase by 4.6% with the adoption of agroforestry and only by 1.3% under organic farming compared to current land-use practices. While agroforestry might reduce farmland revenue and water yield, it compensates for these with other important environmental benefits such as water purification, sediment reduction, nutrient retention and carbon sequestration. This local-scale appraisal of ecosystem services helps policymakers understand the cost–benefit dynamics of watershed land-use changes, which is vital for developing effective management strategies through the involvement of local communities.

Urbanization has become a key pressure on many of the world’s protected areas. This study investigates how local communities perceive landscape values and disvalues in and around Bannerghatta National Park (near Bengaluru, India), which is experiencing high rates of urban development at its peripheries. Using combined free-listing and Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) mapping, we surveyed 489 residents from 12 villages to elicit both landscape values and disvalues. Respondents mapped values such as biodiversity, fertile land and clean air, while disvalues focused on human–wildlife conflicts. Despite persistent conflicts and urbanization pressures, residents valued the National Park for its multiple landscape values. Both values and disvalues were concentrated around village areas. We find that socio-demographic factors – especially caste, land ownership and work in agriculture – significantly influenced perceptions. Specifically, marginalized caste members and landless individuals reported more disvalues, while landowners and farmers noted more values. Our study emphasizes the need to consider both landscape values and disvalues for balanced decision-making in protected areas. It also highlights the potential of free-listing to identify the well-being aspects that matter most for people, which points to the importance of agricultural uses in and around protected areas undergoing urbanization.