Your 2021 Forest-Friendly Holiday Shopping Guide is Here!

This holiday season, support the conservation of the Amazon rainforest while shopping for your friends and family! These forest-friendly companies have partnered with Amazon Conservation in support of our work to protect the Amazon. Any purchase from one of these small businesses includes a contribution to our innovative conservation programs that keep the Amazon thriving, so shopping from these partners is another way you can give your loved ones a unique gift that helps small businesses, nature, and people.

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Shop through this link to support our organization with every purchase you make through Amazon Smile at no extra cost to you.

 

Makeup and Beauty

 

Wisdom of Qara skincare uses botanicals from the Amazon combined with science to create wellness products that will help you exist in balance with yourself, your community and Mother Earth. Their commitment to ethical skincare affects every decision they make about formulas, ingredients and packaging. View their skincare line here. (Currently only shipping to within the Europe Union). 

 

Fashion and Style

Rainy McDry Umbrellas are colorful, eye-catching, and beautiful. Each umbrella line addresses a topic they want to draw attention to. Their “Jungle Collection” benefits the Amazon with 5% of all purchases going towards its protection. (Currently only shipping to the European Union. Check back later for more information.)

 

Marc Skid underwear is made with the world and its people in mind, crafted using organic Pima cotton grown on family farms that strictly adhere to tried-and-true farming practices that exclude GMOs. Also, one recycled plastic water bottle is used in every waistband, meaning one less bottle in a landfill. Learn more.

 

Chrysanthoux women’s clothing encourages connection with sustainability which began by creating graphic and basic pieces that one can resonate with and learn about the processes that go into it. Learn more.

 

Fun and Cheer

Ready for some fun holiday fun? Reckless Conversations is the most hilarious party game of all time! Everyone’s responses to the real life statement cards will have you and your friends laughing for hours, if not for days afterwards!

Add some cheer with Tito’s Handmade Vodka, which is batch distilled corn-based vodka, made using old-fashioned pot stills on the very same land where the whole venture started. Learn more.

Fashion Designer Iris Van Herpen Auctions Custom Met Gala Gowns to Benefit the Amazon

This year’s Met Gala saw two incredible dresses that will help protect the world’s largest rainforest. 

Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen will soon auction the Met Gala gowns she designed for singer-songwriter Grimes and actress Gabrielle Union with Sotheby’s, and all proceeds raised will benefit the Amazon via our organization and Rainforest Trust.

A lifelong admirer of nature, it is no surprise that Iris Van Herpen draws inspiration from the natural world in a style known as “biomimicry”. This concept looks to implement nature’s intelligence into design and invites to look closely into natural transformations. She credits this interest to her upbringing in the “Land of the Rivers” in the Netherlands, where she became fascinated by water and its movement from a very young age. “The transformations within water are infinite,” Van Herpen explains. “I try to translate its dancing beauty and fluidity into garments. Sometimes literal, like a splash of water, other times I take inspiration from its metamorphosis from liquid stage into crystallized structure.”

Image Source: Irisvanherpen.com

One can recognize this natural inspiration behind the gowns she created for this year’s Met Gala. Grimes’ ‘Bene Gesserit‘ gown, inspired by Frank Herbert’s Dune series, features cascading liquid silicone intertwined with hand-pleated gradient-dyed silk. The concept behind this dress was to have small waves flowing in different directions like a liquid labyrinth to enhance the feminine forms. “The patterns invite the viewer’s eyes to travel through the labyrinth, creating an intimacy in motion. There is a symbiosis between the movement of the body and the garment, an optical illusion is created with water-inspired repetition and pattern,” she comments.

Gabrielle Union’s ‘Aeternus’ gown is inspired by the Apollo crew looking at Earth from the moon’s perspective for the first time. A collection of 10,000 translucent white circles of different size gradients that took over 1,400 hours to create and assemble, Van Herpen sought to capture the dynamics between Earth and moon through this design. “By going away from Earth, there is a change in perspective and a feeling of interconnectedness,” she describes. “I experienced this on a smaller scale when skydiving–a strong connection to Earth where we lose details of what separates us. When we go further away, we come closer to each other.”

Gabrielle Union’s Met Gala Gown. Image Source: Getty / Theo Wargo

Iris Van Herpen’s fuse of 3D printing with craftsmanship in Couture is a flagship technique she’s incorporated into her work for more than a decade, identifying her as a pioneer of the use of modern technology in Haute Couture.”My approach to fashion is very intricate and layered to come very close to the beauty and complexity of designs within nature,” she remarks. “Zooming into the interconnected fabric of life has helped me to look beyond fashion’s borders.” 

Not only does Van Herpen have a passion and talent for designing from nature, she also has a strong sense of responsibility for protecting it. “We all have a role in sustainability and environmental awareness,” she explains. “Every person, every discipline. Especially fast fashion—as its impact on our world is devastating.” Van Herpen on the contrary creates ‘slow fashion’ and has been working with sustainable and upcycled fabrics, such as her work with Parley for the Oceans, to continuously explore new sustainable material solutions into the design process. Though she’s never been to the Amazon, she feels a strong connection to it. “The Amazon is home to more animal and plant species than anywhere else on Earth, this incredible biodiversity is key for our own health and wellbeing; we are all interconnected with it. I feel very strongly about helping in its conservation and I will continue to do so. It feels especially critical at the moment.” 

Though Iris Van Herpen notes that the conservation progress being made is impressive, there is still much work left to do, especially in fashion. She lamented the unsustainable elements at the core of the fast fashion industry based on overproduction, and cited that three out of five of all garments made end up in landfill within a year. In contrast, she commended indigenous peoples’ ways of working with natural products they create. “To move forward in time, we have to look back at where we come from,” she commented. “Sometimes we are too focused on the future that we’ve made up with imagination without really understanding our backgrounds. There is lots of knowledge to find again in our past.”

To learn more about Iris Van Herpen,please visit her website here. To follow in Iris’ footsteps and support conservation of the Amazon, see how you can make an impact here. More details about the auction to come. 

 

Technological Exchange Day at Los Amigos Unites Rangers and Satellite Specialists to Improve Protection of the Amazon

As part of the 20th anniversary celebration of the Los Amigos Conservation Concession in mid-July our Los Amigos Biological Station hosted a Technological Knowledge Exchange Workshop to enhance protection systems for the 360,000-acre Los Amigos Conservation Concession. This exceptional event, powered by mutual learning between technology experts, conservationists, and forest park rangers, focused on the development and application of different surveillance strategies to protect the Los Amigos forests from forest crimes such as illegal deforestation, logging, and gold mining.

At this workshop, Los Amigos’s Forest Rangers, who regularly go on multi-day excursions deep into the Amazon to monitor the concession, met with the Satellite Monitoring team that operates from Peru’s capital city of Lima, to create a holistic strategy that more effectively organizes each of their communications. They also increased planning coordination, reporting and feedback tasks, as well as protection and monitoring actions.

The size of the Los Amigos protected area and its location with respect to the Madre de Dios and Pariamanu rivers make it extremely difficult to control and detect illegal deforestation, thus being on top of current technological advances is essential to improving its surveillance. “Technology allows us to enhance the work we do on the ground,” explained Lucio Villa, who is a Senior GIS and Remote Sensing Specialist at our sister organization Conservación Amazónica – ACCA, during a presentation on the analysis of satellite monitoring images and information from the base in Lima. “In this way, thanks to the use of satellites, drones, and GPS, we can perform more efficient and effective work when carrying out activities related to monitoring and surveillance in the Los Amigos Concession.”

They also addressed topics such as reports, monitoring, findings, and analysis. At the end of the day, the satellite monitoring specialists shared their conclusions on the search for evidence and the generation of actionable information for patrols. The latest field activities included the evaluation of data collection (findings, coordinates, tracks and use of drones in the field), which generated new agreements that increased cooperation between both teams. All in all, this workshop was a fantastic day of co-learning, experiential and collective, that reaffirmed everyone’s commitment to protect the environment.

None of this would not be possible without the valuable support of our partners, to whom we express our sincere thanks: Re:Wild, ICFC, Erol Foundation, Amazon Rainforest Conservancy – ARC, and Andes Amazon Fund.

 

Preserving Indigenous Amazonian Cultural Heritage Through Art

During the first week of November, the best of Peru’s indigenous Amazonian crafts were showcased at the most important art exposition in the country. The National Native Art Fair is an important commercial platform for indigenous artisans from the Peruvian Amazon, and this event brought together 25 Peruvian artists and the best works from the 9 indigenous groups they represent: Awajún, Ashaninka, Matsigenka, Shipibo-Konibo, Yanesha, Ikitu, Kukama Kukamiria, Ese Eja and Harakbut, which come from 8 regions of the Peruvian Amazon, including Amazonas, Cusco , Lima, Pasco, Loreto, Ucayali, Junín and Madre de Dios. 

The Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism selected four artisans from Madre de Dios to participate, including two from Infierno, an indigenous Amazonian Community our on-the-ground sister organization in Peru, Conservación Amazónica – ACCA directly works with. Chosen were Pedro Mishaja, the President of the local Association of Artisans and Livia Meshi, who is also a member of the association. Their involvement during this fair are part of Peru’s strategic economic revitalization and revaluation actions supporting indigenous peoples. We assist their community in the management of non-timber forest resources such as açaí or Brazil nuts, as a strategy for adaptation and mitigation against climate change, a project supported by Euroclima. Together, we have been strengthening Brazil nut harvesting activities and agroforestry systems with an emphasis on cocoa and transformation of Amazonian fruits. 

Signature artwork from the Infierno community include ceramics and textile art, as well as fabrics in tamshi, a plant fiber derived from a set of hemi-epiphytic plants that grow among the treetops in Amazonian forests. The use of tamshi is renowned for being part of the nation’s cultural heritage as its use preserves the legacy of the Peruvian Amazon’s ancestral techniques. A very important resource to local communities, its roots are used to construct houses, manufacture utensils, and design handicrafts. The artisans also showcased topa and palo balta wood carvings representing the most emblematic animals of the jungle such as jaguars, giant otters, jaguars or macaws. Additionally, necklaces, earrings, and bracelets made from organic materials including huayruro palm seeds line the jewelry displays, and coconut-based utilitarian products such as pencil holders and baskets were also shown.

At the opening ceremony of the National Native Art Fair the Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Roberto Sánchez, invited the public to learn about the handmade products on display that included pottery, ceramics, textiles, costume jewelry, carving, jewelry, vegetable fibers, musical instruments and paintings. “I want to invite everyone to get to know the work created by our artisan brothers of the original Amazonian peoples,” he stated. “Here you will be able to shop, chat and learn more about their customs and cultures.”