FACTORTIERRA

By Fidel Torres G.  

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 ...

By Diego Mauricio (Regional Network of Water and Environment)       PIURA CITY, Peru – The Ministry of environment recognized in 2008the economic importance of the Andean páramos for the population depending on this ecosystem. That entitty’s former Natural Resources manager Walter Huamani affirmed that “we recognize that [the páramos] historically do have an economic value and the communities located at the highlands ever used it and know of that value.”   “If they don’t know of bank accounts, that is another issue, but they know [the páramos] have a value, and they use it and they live from it. The ecosystems feed the people, whether native people or surrounding people,” he said.   According to the Chira-Piura Hydrographic Basin Autonomous Authority, there was in 2018 a total of 929,247inhabitants through the basin, that represented 56% of the Piura department’s population. As well, Piura highlands s had a population of 55,889 heads of cow cattle wwhich ...

By Julio Vásquez Calle   MONTERO, Peru – The former Sícchez [Seekches] District ’s Mayor Octavio Chuquihuanga Cunya, also former president of the Señor Cautivo Commonwealth, said in 2008 that the rural agriculture of Piura Department highlands is different to the agriculture in lowlands. Those differences are that offer a development chance, joined to the organizations, into an only development vision.   “Being this agricultural corridor [Montero, Jililí, and Sícchez], today it wants to be agriexporter when it is already exporting ecologic coffee to the fair trade markets, international markets, today we are going to make it with the ecologic sugar,” affirmed Mr Chuquihuanga, who also confirmed it was building the first hi-tech industrial processing plant of ecologic sugar in Sícchez District.   By his side, the former Montero District ’s Mayor Ramón Febre Palacios, also former vice-president of the commonwealth, shared the successful experience by exportin...

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 ...

A new interpretation of the most famous cult in Piura opens up two theories.   By Nelson Peñaherrera Castillo   AYABACA, Peru – Is the Señor Cautivo festivity a massive act of Catholic faith, or is it a reminiscence of ancient cults, what eradicated by the Spanish Conquest during the extirpation of idolatries , transformed in a completely new manifestation? Anthropologist Raúl Zevallos Ortiz published an essay suggesting the modern Señor Cautivo pilgrimage could have a remote origin in time.   According to Zevallos, during the Pre-Inca time, the people of Piura Department lowlands, mostly a desert, began to research where their existence source came from – water . Piura Coast is irrigated by two rivers: Piura and Chira.   The first one starts at actual Huancabamba Province southern sierra and is irregular flow, what means full in rainy months and almost dry during the lowwater. The second one has two sources: the most northern is in Loja, Ecuador, and the souther...

The project of athlete Ronald Benites for protecting the environment and our health across Piura Region. All photographs from Ronald Benites Archive .   CHULUCANAS, Peru - Modern times imply to live fastly, it is said. But how much fast? For our partner Ronald Benites , it may be as fast as a bicycle, which he has run around 840 km or 520 miles of highway inside Piura Region, with two purposes: to make the people concious about the care of Earth, and to educate about using a transportation mean that produces no significant impacts on the environment, benefits the health instead. The vehicle, created in actual Germany in 1817 , has been during 20th century one of the most popular transportation means  across Piura, especially the coast, and very particularly at the rural zone where it competed with animals of burden. Currently, its using at Piura's cities is relatively restricted and at the countryside, the bikes as well as the animals have been displaced by motorcycle...