|
LINKS............... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/t1/tagua.asp COLBY COLLEGE : Environmental Entrepreneurialism http://www.colby.edu/personal/t/thtieten/entr-cre.html The Tagua Initiative
exemplifies
the symbiotic relationship between rain forest and market. "The
Tagua nut is an ivory-like seed that is harvested from tropical
palm trees to make buttons, jewelry, chess pieces, and other
arts and crafts" (Carr, 15). The nuts are sustainably harvested,
and so the industry does not present any harm to the forest.
Started by Conservation International, a Washington D.C. based
environmentalist organization, the program "links button
manufacturers [such as Smith and Hawken, Espirit, J. Crew, and
L.L. Bean] with rural tagua harvesters in the endangered rain
forests of Esmeraldas in Ecuador"(33). It has been a tremendous
success. Since its February 1990 genisis, tagua nut sales have
accounted for $2 million in sales worldwide, and the program
is now a role model for other sustainably harvestable products
like "Brazil Nuts and pecans from Peru, fibers for textiles,
and waxes and oils"(33). Clearly a success from a market
perspective, the Tagua initiative also "[provides] 1,200
local harvesters with an attractive price for tagua so that they
have an incentive to protect the standing forest"(33). The
Tagua initiative speaks well for the viability of green business.
It has created a thriving and growing industry from sustainable
harvests. Additionally, it creates jobs for local inhabitants,
thus eliminating the incentive for locals to destroy the surrounding
forest for firewood, timber and farming. Finally, the project
channels income from developed countries into one of the poorest
countries in the world, thus ameliorating living conditions there
http://www.bananaproject.com/en/top/ |
|