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This paper assesses the agricultural sustainability of the peasant community of Huapra, located in the Andes of Peru; this is a type of high land farming communities. The analysis has been made by applying the methodology framework for the evaluation of management systems of natural resources incorporating sustainability indicators (MESMIS). It has also been measured different performance indicators for the three dimensions considered. Among different results it has been found that Huapra community is based on a self-sufficient or peasant economy, mainly due to the low educational level of the inhabitants. On the other hand, it also has been found a high level of productive diversification. These results are similar to the results of other peasant communities like a study conducted in the peasant community of San José de Cusmapa - Nicaragua. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the strategic planning method linked to the territory's sustainable development as it is currently being proposed by various organisms involved in public policies in Peru. It is aimed to discuss the methodology in terms of its validity as a new theoretical paradigm. Its ultimate goal is to bring about a new comprehension of the strategic planning process within the present competitive framework -among districts, provinces, regions, etc.- featured by factors such as human resources assessment, expressive technological investments and emphasis on inter-connectivity, among others. The paper starts by revising the strategic planning model genesis within the public initiative sector and its relationship with the attraction of private investments at local scale. The percourse which links one point to the other goes through both the perspective of economists and administrators and the vision of prominent planners. It ends up by showing the possibilities of a new prospect in the strategic planning of development at local scale, as well as existing doubts regarding the model: firstly, if we lack adequate information in reference to the objective capacities of our closest competitors, we will hardly be able to elaborate competitive strategies favorable to us in a specific environment; secondly, we consider that, in the current context of our country, the goals in the territory development process must be guidelined by employment and income generation for local population and this, without doubt, relies on systematic planning of investment attraction; and finally, we accept that strategic planning may constitute a tool that will enable to consolidate the decentralization and territorial integration processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United Nations conference on environment and development, signed the Convention on Biological Diversity, which obliges the signatory States to combat the extinction of species throughout the world. Its executive secretary said: "the services that nature offers us are free, but the man has a deep unconscious of what he represents their destruction [...] If humanity does not brake to the degradation of biodiversity, the legacy for future generations will be mortgaged [...] must have the courage to look our children in the eye and admit failure [...] admit that we continue losing biodiversity at an unprecedented pace, we are mortgaging their future". Words that initialed by premonitions future about the treatment of the extinction of a large part of the existing biodiversity, that if we do not a treatment, their destruction would speed up and we would be going against the new scheme of sustainable development. In this paper, I analyze and discuss from the perspective of social rights, environmental, and economic, compliance with subparagraphs (c) and (d) of article 10 of the said convention in the native communities of the Peruvian Amazon, an area of permanent armed con ict between the Peruvian State and the native communities. The work consists of six parts. The first explains the legal framework and jurisprudence; the second covers the methodology, and will draw attention to the method and the approach of hypotheses; the third the theoretical framework, the geographical framework and the gathering of information; The fourth on analysis and interpretation; in the fifth set out an analogy with some of the results of the European Union and countries of south America; in the sixth part formulates some conclusions and new perspectives for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The abandonment of indigenous and traditional ways of relating to the landscape and making use of the environment are historically tied, since the epoch of conquest, to the imposition of development models that respond to foreign demands. Social scientists have variously integrated the concept of development as an analytical tool, with differing foci and applications, despite a broader and persistent tendency to relate the idea chiefly to economic growth and eschew social progress. This paper critically addresses the theoretical implications of an ecological approach to the recovery of indigenous technologies in the Andean area, on the basis of experiences in bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. Its objective is to learn from past mistakes and recast the recovery of indigenous technologies as an effective strategy to articulate viable alternatives for local communities in the fields of agriculture, herding and agroforestry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to identify key indicators related to the health of families in their homes and surroundings, and so, to understand the importance of inform Peruvian people about the Healthy Housing Initiative promoted by Pan American Health Organization. We have focused on health factors related to housing in different regions of Peru, taking into account the local ways of life, prioritizing the analysis on lower-income socio-economic groups within the cities, and considering that healthy housing is an important component within environmental health. The material presented is resultant of interviews with professionals with experience in the health and housing field, as well as comparing bibliographic information and news with our subjective perception of reality, aiming to reach conclusions and recommendations. Given the status of housing conditions in Peru and their impact on the health of the population, it becomes necessary to encourage the formation of a national network that may bring together various public and private institutions that have been working from different approaches in promoting the improvement of housing and environmental conditions in Peru, in order to complement their capabilities and support each other in their activities. Finally, we believe that healthy housing is a right and an obligation for people, in tune with the right for health and life and it is also a shared responsibility between local governments and the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theory of market social economy appears neatly when dealing with environmental conservation and the search for the wellbeing of the underprivileged. These concepts have been used in various countries and today it is possible to see countries that carefully watch over their environment and have achieved significant social balance. Peru has not been alien to environmental and social concepts and for more than four decades has establishes organizations, designed policies and enacted laws to look at these issues. However, the outcomes have been limited. Among the reasons that explain the ineffectiveness of such regulations and institutions perhaps among the most important are the lack of effective oversight and control over economic agents, and an inefficient design of the ways to attain goals through regulations and institutions. For that reason, this paper proposes policy options to correct market outcomes and a way to build institutions that will allow to accomplish the desired goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at providing, from a sustainable development perspective, an idea about the direction our country will take once the US-Peru FTA is enforced, regarding particularly the environmental, trade and investment areas. The signing of the FTA has led Peru to leave behind a view of the environment vision as a moral and ethical (some times marginal) component of economic relations, to turn it into a regulatory and mandatory consideration overlapping trade and investment to such an extent that failure to comply may lead to sanctions as severe as those pertaining to other matters related to for instance access to or permanence in a given market. Even so, it is worthwhile mentioning that the FTA is only an initial component of a more complex and broad multilateral scenario that recognizes in the environment an essential element of international economic relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Santiaguito is a district in Peru's northern Andes. In this paper we identify a number of opportunities to channel efforts towards its development. However, and as it is often the case, only the most explicit and obvious variables guide the development planning and management cycle. A non factual prospective analysis exercise allows to imagine a future situation that can be totally different from the originally proposed long-term vision. The available information is used with certain diagnosis and planning tools and then the outcome is compared with reality and hypothesis for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One basic condition for a sustainable development of a nation is a positive proactive management on disaster risk reduction. Such action requires previous knowledge and documentation about hazardous phenomena or events, their dangerousness assessment, and the vulnerability evaluation of: The people and their properties, the multiple societal aspects (economic, social, cultural, etc.), the infrastructure works, vital lines, and the environment. It also requires knowledge of the community copying- capacities and its resilience. In this paper, the main concepts of risk management and the most important features of the seismicity in the Peruvian territory are reviewed. The following characteristics are pointed out for the collision-subduction of the Nazca-South American tectonic-plates seismicity environment: Earthquakes of large magnitude, very large mezoseismic areas, seismic accelerations that not exceed the Earth's gravity on the continent, recurrence times tens to hundreds of years. The tectonic-readjustment-continental seismic environment is characterized by mezoseismic areas circumscribed to the activated geological faults - length: several tens of kilometers, width: few tens of kilometers - shallow hypocenters, geological faults with several meters of vertical displacement, the seismic ground acceleration exceeds the Earth's gravity, the recurrence time of strong events is about one thousand years. The volcanic seismic environment is present in the tectonic block of southern Peru, and it is limited to the zone of presently active volcanoes. Their seismic activity is of low hazardousness. The probabilistic seismic hazard map of maximum accelerations, for 10% of probability of exceedence in 50 years, shows the largest values for the central and southern coastal area of the country: 0.5-0.7 g; in the northern coastal areas this values are 0.4-0.5 g. In the "Sierra" the acceleration range is 0.2-0.4 g, and in the Subandean zone and "Llano Amazónico" the accelerations range between 0.05-0.2 g. There are no traditionalmicrozoning maps of large urban areas in Peru; however, there are several macroseismal soil response maps in term of macroseismal intensities. Peru has no national seismic vulnerability or risk maps, but there are maps of the basic factors of vulnerability: Poverty, population density, Human Development Index (HDI), and constructive environment. The poorest people are distributed in the alto-andina zone, with centers in the old Andean cultures settlements. The province with the largest population density is "La Provincia Constitucional del Callao": 5,515 hab/km2. Lima province has 2,603 hab/km2.… [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]