Municipal environmental management and regional conservation in eastern Amazon: perceived performance by public agents in the Pará state, Brazil

Public agents play a key role in municipal environmental management (MEM) under decentralised regimes. This study aimed to evaluate the MEM through the combined perception of municipal agents and the municipal performance previously calculated by secondary data in Pará, Brazil. A questionnaire with a 5-point Likert scale was applied to environmental agents. The respondents (n = 75) from 53 municipalities were divided into poorly performing and well-performing municipalities. The perception of agents from poorly performing municipalities was more optimistic than shown by empirical data. Agents from well-performing municipalities prioritised “economic issues” as significant threats to management over the “institutional capacity” chosen by the other group, indicating a broader view of the reality. As the perception over land-use practices was vital to differentiate the agents from different groups, we concluded for the use of mixed monitoring methods and feedback information for agents for a better MEM, focusing on five variables (Rural environmental register – CAR, in Portuguese acronym; degraded area; deforested area; rural credit; and abandoned pasture) that differentiated the municipalities.

Ruminating on Microfinance as a Contrivance of Economic Development and Women Upliftment

This chapter focuses on the success of microfinance as a tool to create opportunities for women and other deprived sections in the formal financial structure of India. It also aims at focusing on the role of various institutions which play a significant position in providing rural credit through various channels. The author contends that in this pandemic where economies at global level require resilience strategies, microfinance once again can prove to be an effective strategy to bounce back in terms of improving the economic conditions of poor and vulnerable who suffered the most due to lockdowns, especially in developing nations like India. Localization and promotion of local product can help boost entrepreneurial activities at various levels, which can improve the distorted global supply chain slowly and gradually but effectively.

Application of Multiobjective Particle Swarm Optimization in Rural Credit System

In China’s rural credit system, the problem of credit constraints is prominent. Due to the imperfect credit market, a large number of rural residents have credit constraints. Rural credit constraint is a serious problem restricting China’s rural economic development. Aimed at solving the rural credit constraints, this paper makes an optimization analysis on the rural credit system and loan decision-making. To more reasonably evaluate customers’ borrowing ability, the credit risk based on farmers’ data on the big data platform is evaluated in this paper. The stacked denoising autoencoder network is improved by adopting the deep learning framework to improve the accuracy of credit evaluation. For improving the loan decision-making ability of rural credit system, a loan optimization strategy based on multiobjective particle swarm optimization algorithm is proposed. The simulation results show that the optimization ability, speed, and stability of the proposed algorithm have achieved good results in dealing with the loan portfolio decision-making problem.

DILEMA EKONOMI WANG DALAM MASYARAKAT MELAYU: PENUBUHAN SYARIKAT PERNIAGAAN DAN KOPERASI DI TANAH MELAYU PADA AWAL ABAD KE-20

Makalah ini membincangkan dilema ekonomi wang masyarakat Melayu dengan rujukan kepada permasalahan yang berhubung kait dengan penubuhan syarikat perniagaan dan koperasi milikan orang Melayu pada awal abad ke-20. Dalam konteks sejarah, fenomena kapitalisme telah berkembang dengan penggunaan wang dalam masyarakat Melayu untuk aktiviti ekonomi yang jelas dikesan, terutamanya dalam kalangan aristokrat, komuniti perniagaan dan golongan rakyat. Golongan pertukangan Melayu adalah golongan bawahan yang sedia terdedah kepada ekonomi wang telah berusaha untuk menubuhkan syarikat perniagaan milikan orang Melayu dengan cubaan pengumpulan dana sebagai modal. Namun, usaha ini gagal direalisasikan walaupun sambutan di peringkat permulaan amat menggalakkan. Fenomena ini juga telah berkembang dalam kalangan kaum tani kerana penggunaan wang dalam aktiviti pertanian telah mengubah orientasi ekonomi kaum tani daripada sara diri kepada komersial. Perubahan orientasi ekonomi ini sebaliknya telah menimbulkan masalah belenggu hutang berterusan dalam kalangan rakyat bawahan Melayu. Bagi membantu rakyat Melayu, mekanisme yang dilihat boleh mengurangkan masalah hutang dalam kalangan kaum tani ialah dengan penubuhan koperasi pinjaman luar bandar yang akan membolehkan mereka mendapat pinjaman bagi membiayai operasi pertanian, membebaskan diri dari penindasan pemiutang serta memupuk sikap menyimpan wang dalam kalangan mereka. Perkara ini dapat dicapai dengan melaburkan sejumlah wang yang kecil dalam sesebuah koperasi yang kemudiannya akan memberikan keuntungan. Perbincangan dua aspek ini menunjukkan dilema masyarakat Melayu untuk menyesuaikan diri dalam menghadapi perubahan orientasi ekonomi wang yang berlandaskan kapitalisme. Perbincangan ini meliputi analisis bahan-bahan sejarah sezaman yang merangkumi surat khabar Melayu dan dokumen pentadbiran British. This article discusses the dilemma of the money economy in Malay society concerning the establishment of Malay business corporations and cooperative societies in the early 20th century. In the historical context, the phenomenon of capitalism was reflected through the penetration of the money economy into the Malay economic activities evident among the Malay aristocrats, business communities and the commoners. The Malay artisans were among the first lower class community who were exposed to the money economy. However, attempts to raise funds to establish corporations owned by these Malays failed despite the encouraging initial support. This phenomenon of money economy had also expanded into the peasant community whereby the utilisation of money economy in agricultural activities had changed the self-sufficiency orientation into commercialism. Nevertheless, this change had caused many Malay peasants to be involved with indebtedness. A mechanism that could assist these peasants with the problem of indebtedness was to establish rural credit cooperative societies that would enable them to obtain loans to fund their agricultural operations, unbound themselves from indebtedness and cultivate the habit of saving. These were achievable by investing in cooperative societies that would eventually generate profits. The discussion on these two aspects shows the dilemma faced by the Malays in adapting themselves to the change in economic orientation based on capitalism. This discussion is based on content analysis of contemporaneous historical sources comprising Malay newspapers and British administrative documents.

Legal Protection of Debtor in Credit Settlement with Fiduciary Guarantee

This research is based on the provisions of law No. 42 of 1999 on fiduciary, in particular in article 34, and the provisions of article 27 paragraph 3 regulation of the Financial Services Authority No. 33/POJK. 03/2018. There is a conflict of norms between debtors and creditors. The purpose of this study is to find out the legal consequences for debtors who have been voluntarily submitted to the creditor for a voluntary warranty and to find out the legal protection of a debtor who is in good faith hand over a fiduciary guarantee. The theory used in analyzing data is the theory of the Norms (Stufenbau Theorie), the theory of legal certainty and the legal protection theory. Meanwhile, the method used is normative research with a statutory approach. The result of this study showed that Financial Services Authority Regulation Number 33 /Pojk.03/2018 Regarding Quality of Earning Assets and Formation of Allowance for Earning Assets of Rural Credit Banks, regulating the issue of Collateral Foreclosed can be overridden or become not valid, or at least a material test by the Supreme Court. If violated, it results in being null and void. Furthermore, based on legal protection theory, that Article 15 paragraph (2) of Law Number 42 Year 1999 does not provide legal certainty and justice for debtors.

RURAL CREDIT AND THE LIVESTOCK PROCESS IN THE MICROREGION OF VILHENA, RONDÔNIA, WESTERN AMAZON

The study has as general objective to analyze the scenario of the municipalities in the microregion of Vilhena, State of Rondônia, based on the federal government's rural credit policy, in order to identify the possible livestock processes that would be carried out in this microregion. It is an applied, descriptive, cross-sectional research with a quantitative approach, since the objectives generate knowledge for practical application, which includes the number of contracts and the volume of financial resources for agriculture and livestock in the municipalities of Chupinguaia, Parecis, Pimenta Bueno, Primavera de Rondônia, São Felipe D'Oeste and Vilhena of the micro-region of Vilhena, Rondônia, Brazilian Amazon, in the period corresponding to the years 2000 and 2010. Data collection was carried out through reports from the rural credit statistical yearbook of the Central Banco do Brasil for the years 2000 and 2010. Based on the results found by the research, it was evidenced that in the municipalities of the microregion of Vilhena there was a process of cattle ranching, through the incentive of the rural credit policy granted to family rural producers, where it was observed that among the six municipalities that comprise In the micro-region of Vilhena, all of them presented a strong stimulus to the livestock sector, demonstrating a reversal of agricultural activity for livestock in this micro-region.