Since its inception in 1996, The Chankuap Foundation has been working on the sustainable use of biodiverse products. The Foundation works in several areas: forest resource management, organic production, processing, marketing, and a social education project in the city of Macas. From the beginning, the production has been managed with organic farming standards and has organic certification for most products. The wild harvesting is done with management plans for each species: guayusa, dragon’s blood, and ishpink ungurahua. We have five product lines: agricultural products, essential oils, spices and tea, cosmetics and herbal medicines; and a line of artisanal handicrafts.

The transformation of the products is done in the Collection and Processing Center – CAT of the Chankuap Foundation, which is located in the town of Macas. Here, the raw material come from small-certified producers and are bought according to quality standards previously established with each producer. The materials are then distributed to one of the processing plant’s laboratories, depending on their intended use.

The generation of value added is done in compliance with national and international production standards, and each product has a sanitary registration. Marketing is done at the foundation’s point of sale, located in the town of Macas, and in shops that share our “fair trade market logic” in cities like Quito, Baños, Cuenca, Loja, and Riobamba.