 PaTS
We have also found more amazing craftspeople that are happy to work with us. They share our focus on products made under fair trade and our commitment to green and sustainable practices.
PaTS, a non-profit organization with an incredible mission to achieve sustainability, transforming forest resources into wooden accessories by applying a business approach to achieve sustainability. Gerry Cooklin, a high end furniture manufacturer with a long-standing presence in the U.S. market, founded PaTS in 2001. Since its inception, PaTS has been working with the Yanesha people of the Palcazu Valley in Peru's central Amazon region through the Sustainability Makes Cents Project.
PaTS has been training Yanesha artisans to transform forest resources from their managed forests into wooden accessories and textiles that they can sell for a much higher value. MONTES DOGGETT is assisting to market products from the Palcazu in the U.S. By providing the Yanesha with a formula to generate a fair income from their labor and natural resources, PaTS is creating an incentive for them to continue to use their forests wisely.
WHY WE CARE
Forests provide us with our homes, furniture, medicine, fuel, food, drinking water, recreation and spiritual connection. Additionally, the health of our planet depends on forests. As forests are destroyed, there are fewer trees available to capture the carbon dioxide (CO2) that is created by industrial processes. The higher concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere traps the Earth's heat and causes changes in climate, natural disasters, and species loss. Forests are home to more than 70% of the Earth's plants and animals more than 13 million distinct species. In the last 200 years, rainforest cover has declined from 14% to 6% of the total land area of Earth. The annual rate of tropical rainforest loss is 15 million hectares, which is to say approximately one football field every second. Today, more than 50,000 rainforest species of plants and animals are driven into extinction every year by deforestation.
WHERE WE WORK:
PaTS is focusing its efforts on the Palcazu River Valley of Peru's central Amazon region, which covers approximately 300,000 acres. The Valley is nestled between three protected areas spanning over 700,000 acres: the Yanachaga Chemillen National Park, the San Matias-San Carlos Protected Forest and the Yanesha Community Reserve. These protected areas are home to thousands of plants and animals, including endangered species such as the jaguar, giant river otter and the spectacled bear. PaTS is working with 5 of the 10 Yanesha indigenous communities living within the Valley.
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