The Amazon and the Supply Chain
The Amazon is the world's biggest tropical rainforest [https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/places-we-protect/amazon-rainforest/],
spanning across nine countries in South America. It is a major source of biodiversity and plant life, containing around one tenth [https://www.wwf.org.uk/learn/fascinating-facts/amazon] of the world’s known species and over a billion acres of dense forest [https://www.worldwildlife.org/resources/facts/what-animals-live-in-the-amazon-and-8-other-amazon-facts/].
But for decades now, this vital resource has been under threat. Nearly 20 percent of the Amazon forest [https://ballardbrief.byu.edu/issue-briefs/deforestation-in-the-amazon-rainforest#:~:text=Additionally%2C%20the%20Amazon%20rainforest%20is,who%20depend%20on%20its%20resources.&text=The%20Amazon%20spans%20more%20than,the%20planet's%20largest%20deforestation%20front.&text=With%2090%2D140%20billion%20metric,current%20rate%20of%20deforestation%20continues.&text=From%201978%20to%202017%2C%20over,of%20the%20Amazon%20was%20destroyed.&text=Between%202001%20and%202012%2C%20forest,the%20Amazon%20from%202001%2D2012.] has been lost or degraded. This is largely due to deforestation, where people cut down trees and clear land for other, oftentimes more profitable purposes.
A significant aspect of reducing deforestation is making it financially viable to keep the forest. But how?
In our season finale of the Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women, we focus on efforts to make supply chains more sustainable: from the source to the end product. We start in the Amazon, where we look at ways to profit from the rainforest without destroying it. And we end up in the boardroom to hear from the president of the outdoor apparel brand Patagonia.
First, we hear from Maria Jose “Chochi” Iturralde, executive director of the nonprofit Fundacion Pachaysana [https://www.pachaysana.org/]. She helped launch Fundacion Pachaysana, based in Ecuador, to provide financial incentives for local people in the Amazon to preserve their forest and their land, such as through regenerative agriculture. This is part of a new economic model called “the bioeconomy,” which uses renewable biological resources, processes, and innovations to produce food, materials, and energy.
Then, we hear from leaders at Natura, a global beauty company that sources many of their products from the Amazon rainforest. We speak with Charmian Love, global ambassador at Natura, and Fernanda Rezende Facchini, Natura’s senior sustainability and procurement leader in Latin America, about their bioeconomy work in the Amazon.
Finally, host Zainab Salbi sits down with Jenna Johnson, President of Patagonia. The California-based outdoor apparel brand was founded in 1973 by Yvon Chouinard, a rock climber and adventurer who cares deeply about the environment. Patagonia’s mission has always been to “save our home planet.” Their current president Jenna Johnson shares how fulfilling that mission means meticulously scrutinizing every step of their supply chain.
The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women is a podcast from Foreign Policy, supported this season by Daughters for Earth.
Guests interviewed:
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Jenna Johnson, President of Patagonia
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Maria Jose “Chochi” Iturralde, Executive Director of Fundacion Pachaysana [https://www.pachaysana.org/]
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Charmian Love, Global Ambassador at Natura
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Fernanda Rezende Facchini, Senior Sustainability and Procurement Specialist at Natura in Latin America
Recommended reading:
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Foreign Policy Analytics [https://fpanalytics.foreignpolicy.com/2024/08/29/biodiversity-women-leadership/]: Protecting Biodiversity and Driving Development Through Women’s Leadership
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