FACTORTIERRA

TAMBOGRANDE, Peru – On June 2, 2002, nearly 40,000 people voluntarily participated in a non-binding local referendum to express their opinions on mining activities throughout the Tambogrande District, including the agro-exporting San Lorenzo Valley and the dry forest in the Locuto Community .   98% of the valid votes were against mining, which dealt a blow to Manhattan Minerals Corporation (now Mediterranean Resources), which had the concession to exploit three deposits between the City of Tambogrande and the Community of Locuto, as it evidenced a lack of social license . The Vancouver-based company had repeatedly claimed it had the support of the local population.   The impact of this exercise in democracy was such that it was replicated in Esquel (Argentina), Sipacapa (Guatemala), and three districts in the highlands of Piura (Peru) between 2003 and 2007, with similar results.   In the case of Tambogrande, following the referendum and the boycott b...

This environmental activist looks for his organization to be a world reference of reforestation.   Photographs and video provided by Guillermo Checa , distributed by FACTORTIERRA.     PIURA CITY, Peru – World forecasts about climate change are not good. All points out the humankind is accelerating the global warming as it’s stated a recent scientific consensus expressed in the so-called doomsday clock located in Chicago, Illinois.   It’s considered that planting trees could make a difference and gain time in favor of every alive being.   The key is inside two processes any tree makes – evapotranspiration and gas interchange . The first one consists in releasing the water that every vegetable consumes up to the air, turning it in steam. The second one means to converse the existent carbon dioxide around the atmosphere in oxygen . Add the shadow to this, especially at the cities.   Warming down Some sources suggest that an arb...

Tiny, voracious, it’s eating massively the leaves of the most emblematic tree of Piura.   Attacked carob trees ( Prosopis pallida ) in Cruz Verde, a town of Malingas Community , in Tambograndé, Peru, as they looked like on July 27 th , 2023. Locals told FACTORTIERRA that they also noticed defoliation of Caesalpinia paipai in the acres and Malingas Mount . All photographs along this ENTRY by Milton Garcia , distributed by FACTORTIERRA.   Again, the Peruvian carob trees ( Prosopis pallida ) are losing their leaves –specialists and activists already have a usual suspect this time, despite they couldn’t quantify the extension, yet, so the cost of the damage.   It’s about the Enallodiplosis discordis ( Diptera : Cecidomyiidae ), a kind of tiny fly from the large cecidomid genus, that seems to flourish in dry, desert climates. It was systematized in 1994 by Raymond J. Gagne for a research published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, now in care of the Smith...

A rural school highlights in science, looks for stopping deforestation.   By Nelson Peñaherrera Castillo . Photographs Courttesy Luis Cevallos Jiménez .   This place is 3½ hours from Piura City going up to the east.   CANCHAQUÉ, Peru – Maybe, it’s the last primal dry forest patch in Buitré Mount. Teacher Luis Cevallos Jiménez thinks it’s about 74 acres. According to Soc’cha Alta elders, it was larger, still. Among chamelicos, guayacans, and hualtacos, it was detected anteaters, armadillos, deers , ocelots, peccaries, Barnett's  lanceheads, and blacktail cribos. Soc’cha Alta is a village of Canchaqué District , Huancabamba Province , extending on a slope going from 2756 to2887 feet altitude. It’s part of Bigoté Sub-Basin, a Piura River ’s tributary, and according to Mr Cevallos, it should be declared a protected area once it’s studied scientifically. The also principal of 15458 elementary school, where other two colleagues work and 33 children stu...

Neighbors complained to the Municipality and the Prosecution but the claim seems to be frozen.   By Nelson Peñaherrera Castillo   SULLANA, Peru— The city seems to suffer from nyctophobia , the pathologic ffear to remain silent. It’s one of few cities where there are neighbors who decided to fight the noise. A hundred of them has opened a Facebook group to agree legal actions purposed to turn down the urban sound. At Barrio Sur, Martin Herrera Reto is like a coordinator and manager. He lives on Hipolito Unanué Street, that begins at the gate of Luciano Castillo Colonna Sub-Regional Direction of Health, then runs in parallel to Chira River . He has got a view to the valley from his backyard: “we hear the music like it were right here, sometimes it lasts through overnight,” Near his home, between Arica and Paita Streets and next to the stair going down Huamán de los Heros Pier, an apparently informal gymnasium works noisily. “It begins at 7:30 in the morning, then i...