| Our missions are
similar, but their reach in the Amazon Rainforest is broader than ours. By
partnering with Kallari, the Alliance for Cultural and Economic Exchange has
the opportunity to support more rainforest communities in achieving economic
sustainability.
Kallari Association is a grassroots coalition of
Amazon artists and organic cocoa producers. Their goals are community
viability and natural resource conservation through sharing knowledge and
preserving the Kichwa culture.
Their craft cooperative began in 1997 with less
than fifty families and has grown to 660 families with 1670 artisans. Set
up to establish economic alternatives to the sale of rainforest plots in the
Kichwa communities of the Alto Napo River, headwaters to the Amazon, Kallari
has proven to be a sustainable and consistent means for the Kichwa people to
fulfill basic family needs without logging their rainforests or selling
their lands to farming, mining, or petroleum interests.
The export of handcrafts has inspired Kichwa youth
to learn and practice traditional harvesting, weaving and carving
techniques. With organic certification of their cocoa and improved
production and harvesting techniques, Kallari was able to double the prices
of their cacao and was able to improve the quality of their product by
standardizing the fermentation process. |
