About Us
More About Us: Our Mission - Our History - Fair Trade - Partners - Thanks and Credits - The Forest Foundation
What We Are
We are a small company based in Durham, North Carolina. We are devoted to preserving forests and the environment, assuring that the people with whom we work can make a good living, and educating people about our mission.
What we do is briefly described on our home page. Please, if you have time, read about why we do what we do on our Mission page. It explains our special approach to conservation.
In 2001, we created a non-profit called The Forest Foundation. More information about that organization is available on its web site.
We don't often get to see the artisans or visit the places that are our focus. But we would like to visit them, and bring you along too! From these "last great places," we can all learn to live our lives within the bounty that mother nature provides us, and from them build back a more equitable and sustainable world.
Instead, we have been able to make cash donations to support many worthy organizations, including:
- The Duke University Primate Center, Durham
- Park Ivoloina, Madagascar
- Organization for Tropical Studies, Durham and Costa Rica
- Conservation International, Guyana
- Kilum-Ijum Forest Reserve, Cameroon
- Toledo District Craft Association, Belize
- Carnivore Preservation Trust
- Animal Shelter of Wake and Durham County
- Homeless Shelter for Women in NY and Atlanta
- Under One Roof, an AIDS Support Center in San Francisco
We also occasionally donate products to raise money for student internships through Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment.
We are members of the Fair Trade Federation and the North American Association of Environmental Educators.
Our Products
Our products reflect the diversity of forests and people.
We are particularly proud of our elegant (and cute!) selection of women's accessories, shawls, hats, and ladies' purses and bags, highlighted on a separate web site, Mad About Bags. All are handmade from natural fibers from places like Madagascar, Colombia, and Borneo.
Conservation is fashionable!
