This study employs the Standard Error Estimation technique to investigate the connections between the digitalization of economy, population, trade openness, financial development, and sustainable development across 127 countries from 1990 to 2019. The findings revealed associations between financial development, population growth, trade openness, economic growth, Digitalization development, foreign direct investment (FDI), and sustainable development. Financial development negatively impacts sustainable development, suggesting that countries with advanced financial systems may struggle to maintain sustainability. Trade openness exhibits a negative association with sustainable development, implying that countries with open trade policies may face challenges in maintaining sustainability, possibly due to heightened competition or resource exploitation. These findings highlight the multifaceted relationship between economic factors and sustainable development, underscoring the importance of comprehensive policies and governance mechanisms in fostering sustainability amidst global economic dynamics.

This study explores the impact of environmental degradation on public debt in the largest Southeast Asian (ASEAN-5) countries. Prior research has not examined environmental degradation as a possible determinant of public debt in the ASEAN region. As such, the primary objective is to examine key determinants of public debt, notably economic growth, trade openness, investment, and environmental degradation. Utilizing the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) method and data from 1996 to 2021, the study reveals a negative correlation between investment and public debt. Conversely, a positive relationship exists between economic growth, environmental degradation, and public debt levels. These findings hold significant implications for policymakers seeking to craft effective economic and environmental strategies to ensure sustainable development in the ASEAN-5 region. Stronger economic growth can drive up public debt. Importantly, the study highlights the importance of tailored approaches, considering each country’s unique fiscal and developmental characteristics. Applying the Two-Gap Model enhances the understanding of these complex dynamics in shaping public debt and its relationship with environmental factors.

This study aims to compare investment in human capital, equality of gender education in Kuwait before and after adopting SDG 4 and SDG 5 in 2015. It also aims to assess the effect of women’s empowerment on economic growth. To achieve this objective, published data on the State of Kuwait were collected from the World Bank DataBank between 1992 and 2022 and from the Central Bank of Kuwait. The study employed autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) to determine the impact of women’s empowerment on economic development. The analysis results revealed that the State of Kuwait provided high-quality education for both genders. The results also showed that women are more educated than men. However, this was not reflected in the role of women in the country’s politics, as their participation in parliament and government is still limited. Similarly, women’s participation in business and economic activities is still limited. Finally, the results of the ARDL test showed that women’s education and their political, business, and economic empowerment affect economic development in the short and long run.

As the most basic cultural venue and an important public space in rural areas, the rural museum is not only an important carrier to realize the national strategy of rural revitalization, but also a key link to open up the "last kilometer" of spiritual prosperity in the common prosperity between urban and rural areas. As one of the three pilot provinces for the construction of rural museums under the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, Zhejiang Province has listed rural museums as one of the top ten practical matters for people's livelihood, and took the lead in issuing the Zhejiang Provincial Rural Museum Construction Guide (Trial) at the national level. The construction of rural museums in Zhejiang province has entered a new stage. The paper extracts and summarizes the common problems, successful experiences and typical cases existing in the actual development process of Zhejiang rural museums, and constructs the "Zhejiang paradigm" for the sustainable development of rural museums with promotion value and demonstration significance, providing Zhejiang experience for the sustainable development of national rural museums.

In Nigeria, deforestation has led to an unimaginable loss of genetic variation within tree populations. Regrettably, little is known about the genetic variation of many important indigenous timber species in Nigeria. More so, the specific tools to evaluate the genetic diversity of these timber species are scarce. Therefore, this study developed species-specific markers for Pterygota macrocarpa using state-of-the-art equipment. Leaf samples were collected from Akure Forest Reserve, Ondo State, Nigeria. DNA isolation, quantification, PCR amplification, gel electrophoresis, post-PCR purification, and sequencing were done following a standardized protocol. The melting temperatures (TM) of the DNA fragments range from 57.5 ℃to 60.1 ℃ for primers developed from the MatK gene and 58.7 ℃ to 60.5 ℃ for primers developed from the RuBisCo gene. The characteristics of the ten primers developed are within the range appropriate for genetic diversity assessment. These species-specific primers are therefore recommended for population evaluation of Pterygota macrocarpa in Nigeria.

The national park with Chinese characteristics is the highest level of protection of a kind of natural protection, its establishment marks the park will implement the strictest ecological protection means. It is of great value to construct the utilization system of national park resources under the new natural protected area system in the new era to avoid the misunderstanding of “ecological protection only” and explore how to carry out the sustainable utilization of resources in the reform of national park system and mechanism. According to the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and Delphi method, the evaluation framework, indicators, reference standards and weights of resource utilization under the national park system were determined in combination with the requirements of constructing the protected natural area system and the total value of resource ecosystem services (including harvest value, existence value and future value). Based on the application research of Bawangling zone of Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park, the optimal resource utilization system in the future was proposed, and two optimization strategies of ecological adjustment of resource utilization system and construction of suitable resource utilization system were put forward.