Macambo Origin & Impact: Trees That Sustain
Macambo has grown in the Ecuadorian Amazon for thousands of years.
Near where our farmers harvest today, archaeologists have found evidence of cacao consumption dating back more than 5,000 years — and macambo, cultivated in the same Indigenous systems, was almost certainly discovered and used at around the same time.
For much of the last century, macambo quietly faded. Families moved toward modern diets, harvests were abandoned, and old trees — some of them 40 years in the ground, planted by grandmothers — were felled. Canopy Bridge has spent nearly a decade reversing that trajectory.
The Chakra System
Our macambo comes from chakras — traditional Indigenous agroforestry farms that, to an untrained eye, are indistinguishable from rainforest. Chakras are dense and layered: tall canopy trees filter the light down to understory bushes, climbing vines, and ground-hugging herbs. Each plant has its place in the web of nutrients and life that sustains this fragile ecosystem. Alongside macambo, chakra farmers cultivate cacao, guayusa, coffee, cooking bananas, cassava, timber species, edible palms, and dozens of other food and medicinal plants — all without agrochemicals.
This is not a simplified farm system. It is a living, managed forest — and it is what makes macambo a genuinely regenerative ingredient.
Macambo trees in our network are typically between 15 and 40 years old. Unlike cacao, which is harvested from the tree, macambo fruits fall when fully ripe and are collected from the ground — which means the trees can grow to their natural height of 20 meters or more, towering over the chakra canopy.
The Farmers
90% of our macambo farmers are women.
Since 2016 we have worked with over 450 Indigenous farmers from the Kichwa and Shuar nations, spread across hundreds of square kilometers of the Ecuadorian Amazon in the Napo region.
For most of these women, macambo represents their own independent income — money that they control and typically reinvest in their families’ health, education, and wellbeing. Before Canopy Bridge established a commercial market, the macambo harvest was largely left to spoil on the forest floor.
“Our western diet has been reduced to consuming seven products, but here there is an entire universe unknown to the rest of the world. As a modern society we have dismissed what is rural or Indigenous. We want to change that.” – Marta Echavarría, Canopy Bridge co-founder
By creating real market value for macambo, we have also renewed its value within communities. Families who had stopped harvesting and consuming macambo are reviving its role in local cooking — in stews, roasted on sticks, fried and salted. Nutrition and cooking workshops we run in communities are accelerating this revival.
Slowly and carefully, new macambo trees are being added to chakras — through nursery programs and tree-planting initiatives developed together with partner organizations in the region — building the next generation of the supply
Our Supply Model
We source directly from every farmer in our network. There are no intermediaries between the community and Canopy Bridge. Every batch is fully traceable to its farm of origin.
Macambo requires same-day processing after harvest: the seeds must be separated from the fruit pulp and roasted within hours, before flavor profiles degrade. This is not an ingredient that can be supply-chained in a conventional way. Our facility in Archidona exists precisely to make this possible — and it is a core part of what we bring to the table as a supplier.
We are proud members of the Red de Innovación Culinaria del Ecuador, together with Fundación Fuegos and Fundación Familia Salesiana. Our community work is developed in partnership with organizations including Los Aliados and the Cumari Network — a movement of chefs, communities, scientists, entrepreneurs, and activists committed to the Amazon’s sustainable food future.
