FACTORTIERRA

The science already has an answer about why Piura Andes' medicinal plants heal.  All photographs provided by Fidel Torres .  PIURA, Peru - The potential of medicinal plants in Peru is enormous in terms of biodiversity, but restricted in terms of usefulness. The  investigations are focused on their power for treatment or healing diseases, but they are not enlarging their own perspective to other activities requiring them too, as cosmetology or nutrition.  This narrow vision also limits the economic potential for the communities where these species grow. In the other side, many of these investigations only arrive to gather the knowledge of the communities where that  biodiversity is located, treating them as a source but blocking them to participate into the scientific process. Add to  this the risk that biopiracy follows to represent, that gets data and results but it does not patent them as owned by this  country but it compromises them as ...

la ciencia ya tiene respuestas sobre por qué las plantas de la sierra de Piura curan.  Todas las fotos proporcionadas por Fidel Torres .  PIURA - el potencial de las plantas medicinales en el Perú es enorme en términos de biodiversidad, pero restringido en términos de utilidad. Las investigaciones se enfocan en sus propiedades para el tratamiento o curación de enfermedades, pero no están ampliando su propio horizonte a otras actividades que también las requieren, como la cosmetología o la nutrición. E sta visión estrecha también limita el potencial económico para las comunidades donde estas especies crecen. Por otro lado, muchas de estas investigaciones solo llegan a recoger los conocimientos de las comunidades donde se ubica esa biodiversidad, tratándola como fuente pero impidiéndole participar en el proceso científico. A ésto se agrega el riesgo que sigue representando la biopiratería en el Perú, que obtiene datos y resultados pero no los patenta como propios...

The relationship between Piura City and the water has not been one of the most positive, misunderstandings are older than its Spanish foundation.  By Nelson Peñaherrera   PIURA CITY , Peru - It is supposed that Francisco Pizarro founded San Miguel on August 15th, 1532, becoming the first Spanish Empire's city in South America, locating  it over the Tallan [pronounce "Tajahn"]  town of Tangarara, actual Marcavelica District, just beside Chira (then Turicarami in Tallan language) River.  What promised to be a productive convivence -the soil was pretty fertile- turned disease soon. Malaria decimated the immigrant population, that decided to move away the river . In 1534, it went about 50 miles SE of Tangarará, next to Pilán Mount, Monte de los Padres Acres and Las Damas Creek, actual La Matanza District. Although Lengash River ran nearby,  the city did not located beside this time. It could be renamed as Piura (supposedly from quechuan "Pir...

La relación de la Ciudad de Piura con el agua no ha sido una de las más positivas, y los desencuentros son tan antiguos como su fundación española.  Por Nelson Peñaherrera C  

Where they say a city drowned, an amazing biodiversity outcrops.  By Nelson Peñaherrera .  Photos by André Baertsch i .  SAPALACHÉ*, Peru – A decade and a half later. The first time we learned about Chinguelas Mount was not in favoring terms. Approximately since the millenium began, mining exploration and exploitation was made in the very same place where another people looked for biodiversity and the western tributary of Amazon River starts.  Is there gold ? Since it was apparently submitted to volcanism in geologic past, the probability exists. But the reference haven by some people of El Carmen de la Frontera District ( Huancabamba County ) went back too a legendary past, indeed… spectral, to be pretty right. It is supposed the city of Chicuate (pronounce “Cheekwatteh”) was located on the same name’s mountain side, and its prosperity was based on gold extraction until a strong earthquake swallowed it down making a lake to emerge despite, what sti...

His triumphs permitted him to dance in the Northern Marinera National Contest.   An Exclusive by FACTORTIERRA     SULLANA, Peru – It’s Sunday night, February 5 th , 2012, there is a rain warning, and David Rivera Córdova , 19, must go out to dance again. “Ever when I go to dance in a contest, I think to do the things well and to get in the three first places,” he confesses.   The decissive dancers batch is announced and the Accountability student remembers in a fraction of second that he must not highlight alone but complementing to his couple – the marinera is a dance of two. The roll sounds, the walk begins, and his mother in the tribune holds the breathing.   After many years, a devaluated Sullana’s Feria de Reyes re-launched one of its most missed contests – the marinera and tondero festival. The second one is purely African-Piura-native but the marinera has an entire story that comes from the own Spain and that, after a stop in Chile, is one of the most...

Sus triunfos le permitieron bailar en el Concurso Nacional de Marinera Norteña.   Exclusivo de FACTORTIERRA     CIUDAD DE SULLANA — Es la noche del domingo 5 de febrero de 2012, hay amenaza de lluvia, y David Rivera Córdova (19) debe salir a bailar nuevamente. “Siempre que voy a un concurso, pienso en hacer las cosas bien y en quedar en los tres primeros lugares”, confiesa.   Se anuncia la tanda decisiva de bailarines, y el estudiante de Contabilidad recuerda en una fracción de segundo que no debe lucirse él solo, sino complementarse con su pareja: la marinera es un baile de dos. Suena el redoble, se inicia el paseo, y en la tribuna, su madre contiene el aliento.   Después de muchos años, una devaluada Feria de Reyes de Sullana relanzó una de sus competencias más añoradas, el Festival de Marinera y Tondero. El segundo es netamente afro-piurano, pero la marinera tiene toda una historia que se remonta a la propia España, y que, tras una escala en Chile, es uno d...

An organization could be created just to set a lawsuit against opposers.   By Julio Vásquez Calle (Water, Democracy, and Development Regional Network)   PIURA CITY, Peru – In July 2008, Piura’s 5 th Prosecution Office began questionnaries to people accused of terrorism – farmer leaders, mayors, NGO members among them.   The notified were San Ignacio (Cajamarca)’s Mayor Carlos Martínez Solano, president of Northern Border Sustainable Development Front(FDSFN by its initials in Spanish), Ayabaca’s Mayor Humberto Marchena, Huancabamba’s Mayor Valentín Quevedo, el Carmen de la Frontera’s Mayor Ismael Huayama, and Ayabaca’s First Councellor Deiber Flores, as well as San Ignacio’s Municipal Manager Euler Jave Díaz.   Also included were Javier Janhcke Benavente (Fedepaz), Wilson Ramiro Ibañez (Muqui Network), Biologist Fidel Torres , Mario Tabra Guerrero among others.   Most of the accused are representatives of farmer people in Piura Andes and San Ignacio that are...