ABSTRACT
The knowledge and the use of native plants by native healers of rural agrarian societies located in the moorland and cloud forests of the Northern Peruvian Andes constitute intangible and tangible treasures for sustainable development of these highly diverse ecosystems. Two types of knowledge are integrated during participative research of wild plants: ethnobotany (native or cultural knowledge of the use and preservation of herbal resources) and botanical discovery (western scientific knowledge, e.g., plant phytochemistry). This type of participative research, results not only in the creation of new knowledge, but it is also the beginning of a new practice of use of wild plants for new innovations. The wealth of native knowledge of wild plants of the moorlands and cloud forests of northern Peru may generate healthy rural societies that possess and conserve their knowledge, provided that conditions for the establishment of a territorial innovation system oriented to their conservation are created.
