Forests sustain and protect us in a myriad of ways. They absorb carbon dioxide and provide us with oxygen, they harbour more than three quarters of terrestrial biodiversity, and they support the livelihoods of millions of people worldwide. But the world has lost 420 million hectares of forest since 1990. …
In an attempt to monitor the environmental and social repercussions of mining activities in Latin America, NGOs and community representatives from nine countries, including the US and Canada, decided to form an intercontinental network at a meeting in Peru's capital Lima recently. Largescale mining is being promoted in many Latin …
A recent nine-day investigation led by Polish explorer and scientist Jacek Palkiewicz, has revealed that the Amazon, one of the world's largest rivers, has its source in an underground glacier in the southern Peruvian Andes. The Apachita crevice, an icy creek 16,958 ft above sea level near the city of …
Mobil, the oil company, may be putting at risk the lives of hundreds of Amazonian tribespeople with the massive search for oil it is about to launch in Peru's southern rainforests. The company plans to survey nearly 15,000 sq km for the purpose. The Copenhagen- based International Work Group for …
AIRBORNE archaeology' is the theme that the artist-photographer Marilyn Bridges tried to convey in her recent exhibition of photographs. The exhibits were on view in the American Museum of Natural History's Akeley Gallery, Central Park West at 79th Street in New York City, from December 1, 1995, to February 1, …
The humble potato is now being billed as a super tuber that could have broad implications for the world's food supply. Researchers, led by Carlos Arbizu at the International Potato Centre in Lima, believe that the root has a great potential to serve as a world food, considering its nutritional …
The people living in the harsh semi-arid mountainous region in Peru's Vilconata Valley are finally savouring the outcome of their labours: the fresh vegetables and fruits which they grew themselves. Almost every family in the valley owns a patch of "ecological garden" near its home. And the entire family tends …
TIME was when people looked heavenward and prayed, "Ye gods, give us rain, keep drought away." Today, there are those who pray, "Give us rain, keep El Nifto away." El Nifio and its atmospheric equivalent, (a sea-level pressure 'seesaw') called the Southern Oscillation, are together referred to as ENso, and …
Peru is about to revolutionise its land laws. A new agriculture law introduced, on July 17 by the government eliminates all limits on land-holding throughout the nation. it sweeps away the last remnants of the "land reform" law imposed 27 years ago by the erstwhile left-wing military regime of General …
FELIX murillo, chief of the Peruvian National Statistical Institute, has claimed a reduction of 8 per cent in poverty, as revealed by official surveys of standards of living between 1991 and 1994. Statistics from other sources -- including the World Bank -- say that more than 12 million Peruvians (65 …
INDUSTRIAL pollution in Peru's Paracas reserve area is leaving beaches littered with thousands of fish rotting under clouds of flies. Under threat is the country's major national sanctuary -- Paracas, an important stopover point for many of the world's migrating birds. Contamination problems started some years ago with the ministry …
PERUVIANS catch 11.6 million metric tonnes (MT) of fish annually but consume only 3 kg - 16 per cent of the amount recommended by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) - per head. Measures to develop freshwater fishing aim more towards generating profits, exports and employment, rather than improving the …
An unprecedent mining boom is on the cards in Peru as foreign investors make a beeline to grab the opportunities. Foreign investment had come to a standstill since 1970 because of the governments nationalisation programmes and terrorist activities by the dreaded Shining Path guerillas. Foreign investors have taken heart at …
THE VICUNA, South America's graceful camelid coveted for its soft, silky hair, is falling prey to well-organised gangs of international rustlers "working for brokers within Latin America who then ship the fibre in bales to Europe and Asia", according to an expert with Conacs, Peru's quasi-government agency for camelids, which …
BURDENED by repayment of its enormous external debt, the Peruvian government has been forced to cut down its budgeting for health and sanitation facilities, even though a cholera epidemic claimed about 4,000 lives there in 1991 and diarrhoeal diseases kill about 17,000 children each year in the country. The deteriorating …
GLOBAL attention was drawn to the cholera bacteria (Vibrio cholerae) following the epidemic raging in Peru since January 1991, which claimed as many as 4,000 lives and affected another three lakh lives in the country. In all, till early July 1992, 5.3 lakh cases of cholera and 4,700 deaths were …
Behind an unmarked door in a Lima suburb, Javier Wong is planning a revolution in more than just stir-fry cooking. In fact the very future of food - and farming - is being re-imagined here in a city where nobody dined out 20 years ago, where there is no national …
