Whole Forest

We focus on fostering a symbiotic relationship between local communities, threatened rainforests, and consumers. Our mission is to build a strong forestry economy in Cristóbal Colón, a small town in the coastal region of Ecuador. This economy will conserve local rainforests and connect communities to international green markets, thus reversing tropical deforestation. Tropical deforestation causes 15% of the global carbon emissions leading to climate change. We're implementing a new type of business strategy that addresses the primary drivers of deforestation. By partnering with forest communities engaged in illegal logging and converting forests to agriculture, we're helping them transition to a new economy based on forest conservation, long-term sustainable forest management, and the manufacturing of value-added wood products. By connecting a majority of the trees in a forest to consumers, the value of the forest increases. High diversity native forests under long-term sustainable management can provide comparable or higher returns to communities than converting their forests to agriculture. By raising the value of the forests for local communities, we can create a powerful incentive for forest conservation. Since founding the company in 2002, we've evolved into a vertically-integrated social venture, collaborating with numerous organizations and over 400 families. At its core, this is a conservation organization. Our fundamental purpose is to conserve high value forests in the midst of forest exploitation. With your support, we will conserve tropical rainforests, and continue to push the boundaries of what green building materials can accomplish.