FACTORTIERRA

Photographs Courtesy Fidel Torres.   PIURA CITY, Peru – The highlands of El Carmen de la Frontera District are one of the  most recognized stores of water, food, and even medicine in the world, but one of the less studied discounting its few official protection. With the support of Peru’s Environment Ministry (Minam, as in Spanish), Biologist Fidel Torres continues unveiling the secrets of this place that holds the two key ecosystems of Piura – jalcas or páramos and cloud forests .   Precisely, the investigation is focused in this second space where it’s also latent the investment of Rio Blanco mining company, that wants to extract coopper and molybdenum, what have led it to ask for dialogue to local authorities, and those ones to deny it.   FACTORTIERRA: Why did you do this trip to the cloud forest nearby Henry’s Hill? FIDEL TORRES: It’s about executing the investigation plan of Ethnics-Botanics and Bioactive Substances of Main Non-Timber Species ...

A visit into the most western nascent of Amazon River. Written and photographed by  Ronald Benites , Special to  FACTORTIERRA. EL CARMEN DE LA FRONTERA, Peru - The mountain range will ever fascinate us by many motivations: the solids' majestic, the landscapes, the cool climate, even the culture. Perhaps it is about that fascination of feeling us closer to the sky, at least for us who feel it so. I love the mountain range - I am learning to love it. If all would depend on me, I  took every time I get to  come here, breathe  pure air, enjoy around. I already declared I am an activist of of this kind of spaces, so the coherent will be ever coming  here as much as I can, like right now. I am in a car  going up from Huancabamba City because my today's task is reaching the Shimbe [pronounce "Shimbeh"]Lake, origin of Huancabamba River , and if  we look at the map, the most occidental nascent of Amazon River . Shimbé or White Lake (Laguna ...

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 ...

Written and photographed by Mariluz Mejía, distributed by agrored Norte.   Girls and teenagers of Provinces Ayabaca and Huancabamba, highlands of Piura Departmen t , participate in the ethnical-botanical investigation made by Agrored Norte & Mountain Institute , funded by Peru’s National Council of Science & Technology, Ministry of environment, and Ministry of Agrarian Development & Irrigation, about the potential of wild fruit species of páramos and cloud forests .   They are high-school students of Totora school, Pacaipampa District ( Ayabaca Province ) and Cajas-Shapaya’s Virgen del Carmen School, El Carmen de la Frontera District ( Huancabamba Province ).   Those girls and teenagers mean a potential in scientific knowledge generation to value the riches of Piura Andes biodiversity, that belongs to the families living around the páramos and cloud forest ecosystems   The contribution of the girls’ knowledge  about  the ...

Photographs provided by AgroRedNorte.   Students of Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes School, at Segunda y Cajas Farmer Community (El Carmen de la Frontera District) and Innova Páramos Association, basedon Totoras Village (Pacaipampa District) presented two  filter drinks made of lanché ( Myrcianthes myrsinoides )and ushpa ( Vaccinium foribundum ),looking to blast the market of functional & nutraceutical drinks.   The products are the result of a participative investigation proposing to conserve ecosystems paramos and cloud forests at the Andes of Piura Department by using medicinal and fruit native species to make filter beverages. It has been promoted by Muqui Networ k and advised scientifically by AgroRedNorte .   They’ve been made by the own locals, this is used as a strategy to conserve the Andean highland ecosystems that are part of their territory.  The investigation is already as longer as than over a decade, it’s promoted by agroRed...

Time to travel? FACTORTIERRA delivers an automatic tool to do your own forecasts.     Why should you spend your next vacations in Piura Department , Peru? First of all, the diversity of landscapes from the sea level to the snowless Andes that will give you different choices, from adventure to extreme passing through experiential. And maybe the most interesting insight is the constant weather – temperatures as well as feelings use to be nice along the year, especially since April to December… unless you want to enjoy our summer since January to March.   However, before to book your trip, or if you are up to take the plane (or the bus), it’s necessary you learn what the weather conditions are for your chosen destination. That’s why in FACTORTIERRA, we have checked out not only the most popular touristic places but others we have highlighted with our tourism tag on this blog, or our #visitPiura hashtag on Twitter. So here we have them classified by eco-regions ...