Participatory conservation efforts are now common throughout regions of high biodiversity in the developing world. Standard approaches to participatory conservation begin with need-based assessments that identify humaninduced ecological threats and livelihood deficiencies, but this focus on "threats" and "needs" tends to reinforce perceptions of rural people as predatory, poor and dependent. We examine the theoretical, conceptual, and methodological application of an alternative, "assets-based" approach to participatory conservation and the co-management of natural resources in areas of high cultural and biological diversity. As a case study, we report on the implementation of an asset-mapping activity applied in the buffer zone of the Cordillera Azul National Park in north-central Peru. Data were collected by community facilitators in 53 communities within the park's buffer zone. These data encompass local knowledge systems, community visions for the future, and innovative livelihood strategies compatible with conservation goals. By focusing on these social assets, this approach demonstrates the ways in which positive, pre-existing cultural characteristics may be used to plan and guide the management of a protected area. We describe how this approach has helped to empower local communities and to improve dialogue and transparency between disparate stakeholders. We also include a discussion of the challenges and limitations of this assetmapping activity. IntroductionDebates about the role of local people in protected areas abound, both in terms of impact upon protected areas and the participation of local people in protected area management. While some argue that protected areas and local participation share fundamentally incompatible objectives (e.g., Redford & Sanderson 2000), and that protected areas with human influence are less able to improve forest integrity than those without human influence (Brandon et al. 1998, Bruner 2001, other research shows that humans have aided in the protection of plants and other natural resources therein, leading to more diversity and similar or better percentage forest cover than in uninhabited protected areas (Nepstad et al. 2006, Tuxill & Nabhan 2001.In general, participatory approaches have become nearly ubiquitous in conservation programs (Agrawal & Gibson 1999), but challenges persist in the management and comanagement of protected areas with local participation (Barrett et al. 2001). Furthermore, it is clear that threats to biodiversity have occurred in tandem with the disappearance of indigenous languages and traditional ecological knowledge (Maffi 2005), yet a divergence persists between those who advocate the preservation of biodiversity without human intervention (e.g. Terborgh 1999, Redford & Stearman 1993, and those who feel that biological diversity and cultural diversity do not exist in isolation but are linked (Allegretti 1999, Maffi 2005, Schwartzman 1989