• Rural Digital Europe
• Publicationsclose
• Research softwareclose
• 2018-2022close
• Open Access close
• Rural Digital Europe close

Ethnobotanical and ethnomedical knowledge of the Malays could be known either through oral sources or documented sources. The traditional sources of Malay medicine are useful for traditional and modern pharmaceuticals development in Malaysia and for conservation of biodiversity. This study aims to extract and categorise the ethnobotanical and ethnomedical contents documented in the medical chapter of Tajul Muluk, in the Malay ancient text. Transliteration and data extraction were carried out in order to identify and classify the information in the text. The manuscript has 292 medical interventions for 56 different diseases such as cough, fever, and mental health issues. There are descriptions available for different medical formulations using 209 plant-based materials, 12 animal-based materials and 40 other types. Many of the name and use of the materials are now rare or not well-known in modern today’s society. Medical descriptions listed in Tajul Muluk will be a documented proof of herbs used by local Malay population utilised as ethnobotanical and ethnomedical resources. Hence retrieving useful ancient documental knowledge should be explored in finding useful cures and alternatives therapeutics for various diseases.

Before the emergence of Abrahamic religion, the population in the past experienced both economic calamity and humanitarian crisis as a result of usury practices. Various historical studies reveal that the Babylonian period was an era where human civilization showed dreadful facts as a result of usury praxis. This study focuses on Islamic and Christianity views of usury in economic activities. This paper aims to examine usury starting from semantic discussions to usury practices which are closely related to economic activity from both an Islamic and Christianity perspective. The method used in this paper is a qualitative method with a literature study approach taken from various national and international sources, namely books and journals and citing explanations from the Bible and Qur’an. The results of this research reveal that in Christianity, the study and prohibition of usury practices are mostly discussed in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy, Exodus dan Leviticus, while the New Testament tends to discuss things that need to be done to avoid usury practices. Associated with the economy in general in Christianity refers to the practice of lending money (loans) to those in need without asking for interest or additional returns as a form of profit. Meanwhile, in Islam, the discourse of usury can be found in al-Baqarah, al ‘Imran, al-Nissa‘, al-Rum and the kind of prohibited Usury in is Riba Nasiah, Fadhl and Jahiliyyah which related to purchases and loans.

Differentiations in the habitat and resource utilisation lead to segregation and specialisation of niches for bats within the structurally complex tropical rainforest in Malaysia. This research aims to characterise chiropterans’ assemblages found in two different habitat types in Tasik Kenyir (dipterocarp forest) and Setiu (oil palm plantation). A total of 48 sampling nights were conducted within two years period from March 2017 to March 2019 which covered four sampling sites in Tasik Kenyir and four sites at Setiu. Two standard four-bank harp traps and 10 mist nets were deployed throughout the study at every site to capture bats at understory levels. This makes a total of 576 sampling efforts for both areas. Song Meter SM2bats and Echo Meter Touch from Wildlife Acoustic were used to record the echolocation of insectivorous bats. The total number of individuals and species observed were used to determine species diversity, richness, and evenness. Paleontological statistic software was used to generate the rank abundance and species accumulation curves. Bray-Curtis similarity index was used to generalise the index that represents the relative abundance of the sampling sites. A total of 835 individuals comprising 31 species from six families were captured at both study areas. Out of 835 individuals, 695 were captured within Tasik Kenyir comprising 27 species from six families (H = 2.381) while 140 individuals were captured in Setiu comprising 20 species from five families (H = 2.40). The diversity of bats in Tasik Kenyir was hypothesised to be higher than in Setiu as the habitat possess a larger undisturbed forest. However, the result showed the opposite in which no significant difference was detected from the diversity index calculated between these two areas. Detailed studies need to be conducted to determine if some areas are used as transient habitats for bats.

Urban green spaces (public gardens, parks, urban and peri-urban forests) offer multiple-use opportunities and spaces for recreational activities and played a key role in supporting mental and physical health of dwellers during covid-19 pandemic, being ones of few places where outdoor and social activities where allowed. This study was conducted in Brașov city (also known as Kronstadt, by its German name), the second largest metropolitan area of Romania and surrounded by a significant area of peri-urban forests in Transylvania. Brașov city own just 5.62 sqm of urban green space/inhabitant, one of the lowest in the country, so the presence of a large peri-urban forest area become very valuable for locals and tourists visiting the area. Due to its importance and because understanding visitors' expectations and perceptions is a key element to support decision-makers and ensure proper management of these forests, the Brașov’s forests administrator (Kronstadt Local Public Forest District – RPLPK) decided to investigate how dwellers generally interact with the peri-urban forests and to identify opportunities for improving the capacity of forests in providing social and recreational services. Data were collected through the administration of CAWI (computer assisted web interview) to 314 respondents at beginning of 2021, at exactly one year distance after the pandemic lockdown was imposed all around the country. Analyzing the participants responses, a surprising fact become evident: the use of peri-urban forest is not gender equal, women being less able than men to access these green natural spaces and, therefore, to uptake the benefits provided by the peri-urban forests.

Wild and underutilized vegetables are important sources of food, nutrition, and income for rural communities and indigenous people. Cultivation of high-yielding hybrid varieties, change in food habits, climate change and over-harvesting have resulted in genetic erosion of these vegetables. In addition to this, their availability, distribution and uses are poorly documented. This study aims to document the wild, neglected, and underutilized vegetable species in Jaimini Municipality of Baglung District, Western Nepal. Complete information on wild and underutilized vegetables were collected using semi-structured interviews, guided field walks, and field observation. We recorded 64 species of wild and underutilized vegetables belonging to 27 different families in the study area. Leaf was the most used plant part (26 species) and majority of the plants species were herbs (33 species). Most of these vegetables were consumed in rainy and summer seasons and their availability decreased during winter season. Knowledge regarding their utilization, cultivation, and conservation were also gradually disappearing. Therefore, consumer awareness, evaluation of their nutritional value, and promotion for their commercial use should be emphasized for the inclusion of these vegetable species in our daily diet.

The largest peatland in Malaysia is in Sarawak with approximately 1.66 million ha (13%) of total area, distributed widely in Sibu division followed by Sri Aman, Miri, Kota Samarahan, Sarikei and Bintulu. Despite being the most diverse animal species, the study of insects in peat swamp forest, particularly beetles, is still in the incipient stage. Therefore, this study aimed to provide recent information on the beetle species composition in a peat swamp forest of Real Living Lab, UNIMAS (RLL) located in Kota Samarahan. Beetles were sampled for five consecutive days and nights within a seven-day sampling trip in August 2020. Three sampling methods were employed in this study, namely handpicking method (HPM), modified Pennsylvanian light trap (MPLT) and pitfall trapping (PFT). A total of 15 families representing 37 species and morphospecies with 185 individuals were successfully collected. The most speciose family from the beetle assemblages in RLL is Scarabaeidae with eight species collected (21.62%), followed by Curculionidae with six species (16.22%) and Staphylinidae with five species (13.51%). The most abundant family was also represented by Scarabaeidae with 64 individuals (34.59%), followed by Scolytidae with 27 individuals (14.59%) and Carabidae with 23 individuals (12.43%), respectively. This suggests that these families are good candidates as biodiversity indicator of peat swamp forests. This study is still in its preliminary stage; hence it is important to conduct further beetle samplings in future to better understand the potential of beetle as a bioindicator in the peat swamp habitat as an effort to conserve and protect the habitat and the biodiversity that came along with it.

This article considers the application of remote sensing data to solve the problems of forestry in the Polissia zone (Ukraine). The satellite remote sensing was shown to be applicable to monitoring the damage caused by diseases and pests to forest resources and to assessing the effects of fires. During the research, a detailed analysis and optimization of the information content of Sentinel-2 long-term data sets was performed to detect changes in the forest cover of Polissia, affected by pests and damaged by fires. The following classification algorithms were used for automated decryption: the maximum likelihood method; cluster classification without training; Principal Component Analysis (PCA); Random Forest classification. The results of this study indicate the high potential of Sentinel-2 data for application in applied problems of forestry and vegetation analysis, despite the decametric spatial resolution. Our proposed workflow has achieved an overall classification accuracy of 90 % for the Polissia region, indicating its reliability and potential for scaling to a higher level, and the proposed forecast model is stationary and does not depend on time parameters. To improve the classification results, testing of different combinations of bands emphasized the importance of Band 8 in combination with red edge bands, as well as other bands with a resolution of 10 m for summer scenes. The red margin shows clearly visible differences in the spectral profiles, but bands with a higher resolution of 10 m were crucial for good results.

Este artigo tem por objetivo evidenciar não somente as características do poema “Argéman”, composto pelo poeta suíço de língua italiana Fabio Pusterla, mas, também, o produto dialógico correspondente à sua tradução pela poeta Prisca Agustoni. Nesse sentido, visamos investigar não só a tarefa heurística desempenhada pelo autor, em sua busca incessante pelos resquícios vitais intrínsecos a diferentes eras e formas de ser, mas, também, o trabalho desenvolvido pela tradutora, que, perscrutando as palavras em sua esfera de partida, procura sondar suas reverberações na esfera de chegada. Assim sendo, tencionamos enfatizar os caminhos pelos quais Agustoni enveredou a fim de “recomeçar a luta da escritura para transformá-la novamente em dança” (PERRONE-MOISÉS, 2013, p. 32), caminhos esses que apostam na escuta dos fragmentos de natureza evocados pelo poema em análise, bem como na irrefutável sensibilidade que o atravessa. Dessa maneira, pretendemos salientar também os efeitos gerados pelo encontro de díspares lentes poéticas e linguageiras, ecoando os silêncios, as entregas e os inúmeros atos de fé àquelas inerentes.

Brachyuran crab of Setiu Lagoon was systematically sampled between July 2011 and May 2012 to determine the community structure of animals and their relationship with environmental parameters. The semiterrestrial crabs were collected from a 100 m2 quadrat at eight stations. In addition, fishing devices were used to collect true aquatic crabs employed at the subtidal habitat. Forty-four species and 13 families were identified representing semiterrestrial and true aquatic crabs (i.e., Sesarmidae, Varunidae, Grapsidae, Ocypodidae, Macropthalmidae, Dotillidae, Camptandriidae, Pilumnidae, Portunidae, Eriphiidae, Oziidae, Dorippidae and Leucosiidae). Parasesarma plicatum, Perisesarma eumolpe, Clistocoeloma merguiense, Haberma sp., Uca (Austruca) annulipes, Uca (Gelasimus) vocans, and Moguai aloutos) were widely distributed in this lagoon. ST5 (at mix mangrove forest) recorded the highest number of species with density (12 ind.m-2), species richness (D = 2.68 ± 0.72), species evenness; (J’ = 0.90 ± 0.06) and species diversity (H’ = 2.17 ± 0.32) as compared to other stations. The results indicated that water salinity, pH and sediment grain size influence the community pattern of brachyuran in this lagoon.