About our store
Welcome to the fair trade Amazon Forest Store - the online store of the non-profit Center for Amazon Community Ecology (CACE). We sell innovative handicrafts made by native and campesino artisans from the Amazon region. Your purchase helps protect its trees and rivers by giving artisans a way to support their families without damaging the forest. CACE is a member of the Fair Trade Federation and pays artisans promptly for their work. We reinvest a part of every sale to help improve health, education and conservation needs in their communities.
CACE was founded in 2006 by Dr. Campbell Plowden - an ecologist and environmental activist with more than 30 years of experience researching and protecting tropical forests. We are developing value-added non-timber forest products (fruits, fibers, resins and other plant products) like handicrafts and aromatic essential oils with our partners to help them earn a sustainable source of income.
CACE is based in Lemoyne, Pennsylvania and our field staff based in Iquitos regularly visits our partner communities in the northern Peruvian Amazon to organize skill-sharing workshops. We also produce training videos and illustrated materials to help artisans learn how to make new crafts using traditional techniques and natural materials.
Over 200 artisan partners have created a wide variety of crafts from strong chambira palm fiber, cultivated and wild plant dyes, and other natural Amazon materials. Beautiful baskets, hot pads, and place mats can decorate your dining room table or living room wall. Add a touch of Amazon style to your wardrobe or personal accessories with a hand-woven belt, hat band, hair barrette, or unique ring, bracelet, necklace,or earrings made with natural materials. Choose a woven armadillo or toucan, carved coati, or calabash pod ornament etched with a jaguar to adorn your or a family member's Christmas tree. Nature-loving musicians will love our Amazon mandolin and guitar straps woven with the patterns of jungle snakes and maracas hand-made by Bora and Shipiba artisans featuring figures of Amazon wildlife and traditional geometric patterns.
Since our crafts are made by a wide variety of artisans, there are often small differences in the way they make crafts of the same model. It is, therefore, important to keep in mind that a craft may look slightly different from the photo of the model shown on a product page.
We have sold handicrafts made by our partners from the Amazon, Ampiyacu, Maranon, Napo, Tahuayo and Ucayali River region at churches, schools, craft fairs, green expos, and music festivals since 2007. We have opened the online Amazon Forest Store in 2016 to share their crafts with people around the world. We invite to explore our site to learn about the people, plants and places that contributed to making these special crafts.
For more information about CACE, visit our main website at: www.AmazonEcology.org or visit us on Facebook, Wordpress (blog), Twitter, or YouTube. Contact us by email at: amazonecology@comcast.net or email us at info@amazonecology.org.