There has been an increase in the outbreak of communicable diseases in recent times; the most recent ones are Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) and COVID-19. These diseases have had different impacts on society and the ecosystem. However, underlying these impacts are the levels of preparedness of governments and public health institutions to mitigate and control these diseases. Therefore, this paper aims to explore these impacts, government and institutional interventions and their nexus towards the effective management of such crises. A critical review of empirical literature was adopted for the methodological approach and narrative synthesis used for analysis. Results show that EVD had diverse impacts on West Africa; economically through the loss of income from economic activities due to widespread sickness among workers and movement restrictions. EVD also had significant social impacts, such as reduced community cohesion, school and business closures, job losses, food insecurity, and high morbidity and mortality. Though some good efforts have been made by different countries in collaboration with international organisations like the World Health Organization to control disease outbreaks more effectively, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has however exposed major weaknesses in the capacity of most African countries to cope. Poor capacity for testing and treatment, inadequate health facilities, poor incentives for health care workers, poor governance systems, poor border control, and awareness and research capacities impacted negatively on the capacity to control disease outbreaks. There is, therefore, a need to strengthen health systems across Africa through improved resource mobilisation, staff training, and coordination of investment strategies to sustain health system preparedness to manage future emerging or re-emerging outbreaks.

The prioritization of market over nonmarket values of nature is a key driver of the global biodiversity crisis. Recognizing nature’s diverse values in decisions is a fundamental lever for sustainability transformation. While economic valuation of nature has a long history, it has struggled to recognize the full suite of nature’s values, particularly the broad, relational, intrinsic, and shared values reflecting the complexity of human–nature relationships. We explore opportunities to expand the consideration of values within the economics of biodiversity by reviewing conventional and heterodox economic approaches. We argue that integrating pluralistic values requires a relational biodiversity economics that transcends people–nature dualism and seeks the flourishing of life. We synthesize foundations for such a paradigm in relation to worldviews, values, value indicators, and life frames. Our perspective transcends the dominant economic framing of nature as a passive, largely substitutable asset, to also consider nature as place, self, and harboring agency. This helps to overcome the limitations of conventional economic assumptions, better reflects peoples’ lived experiences, and supports transformations toward more just and sustainable futures.

Agricultural Land-Use Change (ALUC) is a major driver of global environmental change, not least via its direct impact on the sustainability and resilience of the rural economy. Its drivers are complex and have remained contentious, necessitating further empirical study. This study aims to derive context-specific evidence on the driving factors and effects of ALUC from different stakeholders’ perceptions. We carried out household surveys and participatory rural appraisal across Benue State, Nigeria. ALUC has economic, social, ecological, and institutional implications for farmers and on agricultural productivity. Farmers perceived that the main factors driving ALUC were land conflict, government land-use policies and infrastructural development. Stakeholders’ perceptions revealed that although the factors driving ALUC are diverse in nature, they are somewhat embedded within the broader issue of land-use conflict, which has led to cropland abandonment, clearing of forest vegetation, soil degradation, changes from large scale to subsistence farming, and farmers’ eventual loss of interest in agriculture. This suggest that the drivers and implications of ALUC go beyond simple changes to the extent of land used for agriculture, but also incorporates other regional socio-ecological changes. Our study highlights the importance of stakeholders’ perceptions in understanding complex socio-ecological issues if we are to provide clear direction into areas where policy interventions are most needed.

The need to recognise plural values and integrate these into policy design has long been of interest in nature conservation. However, we also need to understand whether and how different values are prioritised among diverse stakeholders. This is particularly important when indigenous and traditional cultures play a role in how land is managed and protected. Working in the sacred forests of Nigeria, we applied the principles of biocultural conservation and sociocultural valuation to understand the values that underpin people's relationship with nature and with other users of nature. We operationalised this by employing participatory workshop methods to identify multiple values of sacred forests, and conjoint analysis to elicit local people's value priorities and preferences for conserving sacred forests. We identified multiple values attributed to sacred forests, but the strongest preferences were for improved provision of medicinal values. However, preference heterogeneity analysis showed that sacred forests are valued differently among clusters of people with distinct sociodemographic profiles. Our findings also showed that the current management strategy for the conservation of sacred forests is inadequate to galvanise shared and collective responsibility from diverse stakeholders. Using a value‐based approach, more robust management strategies that will yield high utility to the public were determined and recommended for implementation. Policy implications. Overall, our study demonstrates that sacred forests are valued in multiple ways above and beyond their role in a cultural belief system. New strategies are therefore needed to effectively manage and conserve them. We recommend a plural approach to the conservation of sacred forests that will incorporate multiple values. This can be achieved by integrating biocultural conservation and sociocultural valuation. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.