carbon_neural_shipping

Make Your Order Carbon Neutral with Our Non-Profit Partners!

ShamansMarket has teamed up with Camino Verde,  a non-profit organizations working to preserve the Peruvian Amazon.  We are offering our customers the opportunity  to offset greenhouse gases produced in shipping your order.  Your $2 contribution will go to planting and  maintaining endangered jungle hardwood trees that absorb carbon dioxide while  protecting biodiversity and to preserving virgin rainforest.  

The process of collecting carbon in forests, soils, geological formations  and other carbon "sinks" is called carbon sequestration. Native trees  and forests help fight climate change as part of their natural processes. As  they grow, trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it into  oxygen.

Camino Verde (“the green path”) is a 501-c-3 non-profit  organization whose work is based in the Madre de Dios  region of the Peruvian Amazon.  It is the primary mission of Camino Verde  to plant trees and encourage others to do the same.  Their programs and  presence in several small communities in the Tambopata River basin  have focused on promoting the planting and preservation of trees as a source of  sustainable income and economic empowerment to small scale subsistence  farmers.  Migratory agriculture is the number one cause of deforestation  in the Peruvian Amazon.  It is their vision to reduce the impact of human  populations on wild forests through the improved economic opportunities  provided by long-term perennial reforestation and agroforestry. 

In the past three years Camino Verde has made great advances in  the creation of a viable example of the tree-based agriculture systems they promote.   The result is their “living seed bank” with over 150 species of endangered and  productive trees, shrubs, and native vegetables planted to date.   Meanwhile, they have taken our work out into the community, planting 700 trees  on the land of 10 farmers in one community in early 2009.  Other projects  include the construction of  infrastructure to support a local indigenous healer’s important community  healthcare practice and active research into low-budget options for  reforestation of degraded cattle pasture lands that were once lush  jungle. 

Institutionally, Camino Verde is committed to the  highest standards of integrity, transparency, and ethical usage of funds.   It is their firm practice to direct all donations to their reforestation work  and to strictly avoid administrative costs.  Their paid staff of two  Peruvians and one American, working hands-on planting trees in Peru, are supported by a dedicated group of  volunteers in the United    States.

For more information on Camino Verde and the great things they are doing, please  visit: www.caminoverdeperu.org