Dear readers.

In previous editorial pages I have stated that our Orinoquia Magazine as an independent voice, published in the Universidad de los Llanos of Colombia, has always aspired to spread science and technology with a universal vision; we receive collaborations from any country or institution that complies with the peer-to-peer rule, to independent and rigorous product arbitration. However, we do not lose sight of the fact that most of their articles deal with scientific problems, solutions or questions that have arisen in the Orinoco territory, it is in this context, in that territory, and in their academic communities that the publication is mainly nurtured. Therefore, his voice reflects or represents the ideas and research results that arise in the geographical and cultural area of the Llanos, with their social, ecological, economic and productive connotations.

The Llanos, historically, have been called as a region of immense potential to support the development of the nation, but in truth, very few scientific efforts, or strategic planning have been really effective to articulate them to such a process. The political will is diluted if one thinks of a harmonious development, which does not imply only the occupation of the territory, excessive extraction of resources, irresponsible use of environmental services and, of course,equity indicators are poor. The Orinoquia remains a region of which much is expected in terms of its productive capacity, food or agro-industrial products, for example, but in which even the structural difficulties related to education, health or infrastructure are well below the averages national, and the most worrisome, with emerging ecological problems worthy of careful work in the field of eco-toxicology. There is disorder in the pretension to ‘grow’ without addressing the bases of development until achieving inclusive socio-economic goals, favorable to the majority of inhabitants, such as those of ancestral ethnic communities or the traditional criollos of these latitudes, that is, to achieve a sustainable development that consider positively the territory and its inhabitants.

Supporting and improving a means of disseminating science, such as Orinoquia, has been a task in which, the institution and the committed people, we have invested ideas, efforts and resources for more than twenty years; going through a process of training and self-learning, milestones such as indexing are achieved, which for regional publications has particular connotations, much more if we consider that the interest is not to compete in the digitized knowledge market, applying inflexible biblio- Metrics or other parameters made as measures of ‘quality’ but in other contexts, cultures and territories, which do not always correspond to our realities and local difficulties. Even so, we persist in being valid interlocutors of global scientific colleagues, conversing in the universal language of science, recognizing the need to search for truth and the practice of universally accepted methods. However, we think that we owe it first of all to the readers of our South American equatorial contexts and territories, we believe that there are authentic, different questions that we must respond to our reality or realities, that is why we urge territorial communities and local authorities to support this and all means that seek this congruence, which consolidate the idea of building an Orinoquense Territorial Intelligence Network -RIO-, of which Orinoquia is just a small node, an independent voice among the multiple voices of the territory. For this reason we continue to call the scientists who are settled or genuinely interested in the Orinoquia, to continue in the effort to know it, conserve it and defend it as a universal heritage.

Finally, as Editor, I would like to thank the support received by so many people and institutions during my administration, which will now pass to other awake and laborious minds and hands that will continue to clear the way.

Sure to continue counting on the appreciation of readers.

Cordially,