The region's capital is Piura and its largest port cities, Paita and Talara, are also among the most important in Peru.

The country's latest decentralization program is in hiatus after the proposal to merge departments was defeated in the national referendum in October 2005.

This makes the Piura Region a land that is both tropical and arid at the same time, The Land where the Tropics meets The Desert The coast is divided by the Peruvian subtropical desert of Sechura on the south and savanna-like scrub Tumbes–Piura dry forests to the center and north of the region.

There are also small valleys of tropical climate, where rice and coconut fields are common, especially around the Piura and Sullana rivers.

The major peak surpasses 3000 m. The Paso de Porculla, in the southwest of the territory is only 2,138 meters high and is the lowest pass of the Peruvian Andes.

Piura is a land of unique algarrobo trees, a variety of mesquite similar to the carob, and it is the region with the most equatorial tropical dry forests in the whole Pacific.

The most important culture that developed in the Piura region was Vicús, which stood out for its ceramics and delicate work in gold.

In 1532, Francisco Pizarro founded the first Spanish city in South America on the banks of the Chira River in the Tangarará Valley.

Yet, the raids against the Spanish authorities led by Admirals Borran and Cochrane, members of the libertarian expedition of José de San Martín, woke the longing for liberty in the minds of the local people.

Local Piuranos have a different accent from their neighbours at both sides since: they tend elongate their syllables in a similar ways to northern Mexicans.

Like many Peruvians, they enjoy drinking chicha de jora, pisco or beer and many of them have a tendency towards creativity and art as their source of income.

[citation needed] The warm climate of this region forbids hard labour from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., so it is common tradition to take siestas and better to wake up early to get important stuff done before noon.

Popular crafts are the Chulucana Pottery and handy hats and silversmith arts made from the Catacaos Province.

Northern cowboys can still be seen today wandering the deserts of Sechura, Catacaos and the forests of Morropon transporting their goods using donkeys and mules.

They are noted not only for their abilities to sing and play Cumanana and Tondero but as silversmiths that work the filigree earrings, leathers, hats, wooden and silver utensils of Catacaos region.