By Sydney Nilan

Runa Foundation is beginning a groundbreaking new initiative in the Peruvian Amazon. As an organization looking to create new value for tropical forests and their inhabitants, we are always looking for ways to share the bounty of the Amazon with the world.

Teaming with Peruvian NGO Rios Nete, our newest project focuses on health and well-being. We are asking the question: What if tomorrow’s innovations in modern medicine have their roots in the Amazon’s ancient past?

The indigenous peoples of the Amazon inhabit the world’s single largest incubator of biological diversity, and over centuries they have discovered the properties and medicinal uses of the vast array of plants that surrounds them.

However, over the last hundred years this knowledge has been under attack, as modern healthcare has pushed traditional medicine underground and out of sight. Today, there are very few people left who hold the knowledge of these plant medicines, and we are in a race against time to preserve their millennia old tradition.

Right now, we are launching an initiative to build the first ever Amazonian research facility bringing together western medical research methods and traditional Amazonian medicine. We are hoping to unlock the healing power of the Amazon, and show the world that people everywhere can benefit from the Amazon without destroying it.

Many modern pharmaceuticals are derived from forests and natural plant sources, and yet less than 5% of Amazonian plants have been scientifically evaluated for their medicinal properties. What makes this even more astounding is that the rainforest abounds with seemingly miraculous stories about cures for illnesses for which modern medicine has no answer.

In collaboration with indigenous healers, Runa Foundation and Rios Nete will research the efficacy of these plant-based remedies in addressing today’s chronic illnesses. We see Amazonian plant medicine as a ‘disruptive technology’ that could benefit communities across the world, starting with the people who live there.

Patients across the globe are looking for more effective, natural, and economical treatments for modern illnesses that are non-invasive and non-toxic. The Amazon not only holds the potential to provide people with a more integrated and holistic approach to health, but also showing the world the potential of Amazonian Medicine can provide the impetus to halt its destruction and save the lungs of the planet.

At Runa Foundation, we have seen the benefits of bringing together indigenous knowledge and modern enterprise models, and now we want to expand this idea into health and wellness. If you’d like to help, please visit us at www.plantmed.org

For more information:

Aliana H Piñeiro, Director of Evaluation and Development, Runa Foundation