Sustainable development is a crucial issue that has been particularly emphasized by the Party and the Government of Vietnam, especially in areas with a large population of ethnic minorities. The Southern Central Highlands is currently home to nearly 50 ethnic groups, among which local ethnic minorities such as the Ê Đê, K’ho, and M’nông are striving to develop their economy, culture, and society sustainably. However, this development process faces numerous challenges from both objective and subjective factors, including natural conditions, government development policies, ethnic psychology, and religious factors. At present, Catholicism and Protestantism are the two main religions within the ethnic minority communities of the Southern Central Highlands. Introduced to the region from the late 19th to early 20th century, these two religions flourished in the second half of the 20th century and have become major elements in the spiritual lives of the communities. Religion has had and continues to have significant impacts on the economic, cultural, and social development of local ethnic minorities, contributing positively to the process of sustainable development. This article uses data collected from the community through participant observation, in-depth interviews, and survey questionnaires to analyze the impact of religion on the economic, cultural, environmental, and social aspects of local ethnic minorities in the South Central Highlands in the context of sustainable development.
Sustainability in land use plays an important role in the urbanization process toward achieving the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This study integrates Earth observation data through satellite imagery analysis combined with field surveys to assess the Urban Land Use Efficiency (ULUE) by using the land use efficiency index, estimates the relationship between land use, population growth, and the urbanization process in Thang Loi ward over a 20-year period. The findings reveal inefficient urban land use, where the expansion rate of built-up areas exceeds the population growth rate in the studied area. From 2002 to 2022, the population and built-up area increased by 339% and 460%, respectively. In most of the expanding areas, there is widespread hoarding and fragmentation of land use, with numerous plots of land being vacant or underutilized for many years due to lack of control. Therefore, to improve land productivity and ensure sustainable urban growth, the local government should consider improving the Urban Land Use Efficiency Index.
Recognized as a smart city, Binh Duong's smart city development strategy also includes the development of automated agriculture, typically large-scale livestock farming. A sustainable urban development will not be able to ignore the factor of providing food for urban and regional people. Phu Giao district - Binh Duong province is one of the leading districts in livestock farming, especially concentrated pig farming. The agricultural industry, pigs breeding, is one of the strengths of the district, besides the cultivation of short and long-term industrial crops such as rubber, cashew, Ho Tieu... Livestock is a very old profession of the Vietnamese people in Phu Giao district as well as in Binh Duong province. The contribution of livestock production to the socio-economic face of the district cannot be denied. However, animal husbandry activities, besides the economic values, also cause some consequences to the natural environment such as soil and water pollution, noise, odors in the air, etc. Hence, we decided to do the research of "Application of ISO 14001:2015 international standards in determination of environmental aspects at market hog farm with semiautomatic technology farm size 12,000 pigs per year in Phu Giao district, Binh Duong province" (TCVN ISO, 2015). This is a large-scale pig farm with modern semi-automatic technology equipment. We expect to find out environmental issues in the most detailed and specific way so that the owner can overcome the above environmental problems, rest assured to raise livestock and develop more expansion later. We conducted a review of the areas on the farm, evaluated the activities in each area, from which we found out the environmental problems through the material flow diagram (Phạm Thị Hồng Cẩm, 2020). Next, through the multi-criteria method (Phạm Thị Hồng Cẩm, 2020) we calculated the score and found the most significant environmental aspects (most environmental risk). The research results will be a general picture to provide farm owners with an intuitive and easy-to-understand view for suitable solutions. Developing farm economy along with environmental protection towards sustainable development of livestock agriculture.
Youth in a nation is the most viable and potential human resource in both demographic and social structure. Without the youth's adequate and integrated bio-social development a nation cannot attain its anticipated human goals. Based on government initiative a2i, the empowerment of youth towards sustainable development in Bangladesh is described in this paper. Although the Bangladesh Government has formulated and implemented policies, plans and programs for youth welfare are still through GOs and NGOs. Related literature indicates that, regardless of all age and regions, young people in this country face several socio-cultural problems where they cannot grow and empower themselves adequately. As a result, they cannot play their important roles in sustainable development and changes within the country. To resolve the problems of the youth in relation to their development and empowerment, the Government of Bangladesh is developing and implementing some solutions. The case study focuses on the role of a2i for development of youth in the successful design of public development and sustainable development programs.
The Southeast plays a very important role in Vietnam’s economic development. Despite a high concentration of social scientists in the Southeast region, there remains a paradox that the Southeast culture has not been sufficiently researched into. Applying the method of cultural zoning based on the changes of the three dimensions Subject – Space - Time developed by the author, the article concludes that the Southeast is a separate cultural zone besides the Southwest and lists some typical characteristics of the Southeast in terms of cultural elements (focusing on the organizational culture) and the system of cultural personality characteristics of Vietnamese people in the Southeast. An analysis of the Human Development Index (HDI) of the Southeast shows that this development is unbalanced and unsustainable. To achieve balance and sustainability, more investment must be made on the culture and the people; community-village type behaviors should be replaced by community-society type behaviors; and the urban way of living, the urban culture and good urban citizen character should be promoed while limiting the rural/agricultural lifestyle and characteristics.