Judy Logback and a young Ecuadorian friend. Photo Credit: Beloit College Magazine

Judy Logback is hard to miss. Tall and spare, with sinewy arms and a mane of wavy blonde hair, she walks and speaks with confidence and poise that would serve her well in any business boardroom. But her usual work uniform—worn T-shirt, shorts, and bare feet—belies the fact that she is a marketing maven of a sort. Only seven years out of college, Ms. Logback devotes her abundant talents and energies to helping the native people of Ecuador sell handmade products to a global clientele. This is not financially lucrative work, but it is very rewarding, as she recently explained to a room of pre-teen girls at the College's annual Girls and Women in Science conference.

"Trees, plants, birds, wildlife—we do need to conserve the biodiversity of the rainforests," she emphasized to an audience of young scientists. "But we must recognize and understand that people are part of the diversity, and we need to conserve the cultures that know how to utilize these resources."

Ms. Logback knows that all too well. Working with native Ecuadorans has been her chief vocation since she arrived in the small South American republic in January 1997. An environmental biology major, she expected to educate local Kichwa people about the need for saving ethnobotanical knowledge of their medicinal plant remedies and the rainforests. However, she soon realized that, while the locals understand how deforestation will ultimately hurt them, their immediate and basic living needs are so urgent that few can afford to practice their cultural tradition of harvesting wood solely for canoe and house construction.

"I came to understand that I was in no position to educate the Kichwa about the management of their natural resources," Ms. Logback says. "After all, they have conserved one of the world's most biodiverse rainforests for thousands of years."

Despite the richness of their natural environment, the majority of Kichwa live in immense material poverty. Most families earn less than 600 USD annually from the sale of lumber and agricultural produce. In the last 30 years, outside markets began offering payment in exchange for crops, leading native Ecuadorans to expand agricultural plots to include coffee, cocoa, and corn. However, such crops yield little cash, so many Kichwa turn to logging out of desperation.

We must recognize and understand that people are part of the diversity, and we need to conserve the cultures that know how to utilize these resources.

Ms. Logback's efforts began with a series of interviews she conducted with local Kichwa leaders. "I opened my plans to the requests of communities bordering the Jatun Sacha reserve," she recalls. "I mentioned my concern about their future and the future of their forests, and asked how I could help."

She was told that the Kichwa country people need the means to earn enough money without logging. Ms. Logback learned that native traditions stress environmental concern and careful management of resources, but exposure to Western culture influences the Kichwa to abandon those traditions. She also found that Kichwa families who are determined to send their children to high school cut down trees fastest in order to raise money for tuition and fees. "It was a hard lesson to see education being a direct cause of environmental destruction," she reflects.

Then several individuals approached her about selling their crafts to tourists. Ms. Logback soon realized that such wares—including bags, bowls, baskets, canoes, and jewelry fashioned from seeds, fibers, and stalks gathered in the rainforest—are easily produced from sustainable resources and are attractive to buyers and vendors. Within a few short months, she established a brisk business selling goods to tourists.

Today, Ms. Logback is the project director of a full-fledged marketing program which exports handmade crafts from the Amazon rainforests to more than 70 retail outlets in eight countries. One major United States client is the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, which ordered 4,000 USD worth of necklaces in 2001; international fashion retailer ESPRIT has invited her to present a line of products for a possible spring 2003 line.

Ms. Logback serves as the critical link between the Kichwa craftspeople and their foreign markets. She works with more than 700 artisans now in the program, developing products and production goals. Original pieces are sold through the nonprofit organization; artisans keep their sale prices competitive and thus reap a greater percentage of the profits. Participants clear between 5 USD and 15 USD each day, considerably more than they would earn farming. In five years, the Callari Cooperative marketing initiative has brought more than 100,000 USD to the Upper Napo River region. Some profits are used to develop programs that offer Kichwa people opportunities to educate their children.

The Jatun Sacha Foundation and its members work to ensure that only renewable resources are used in the manufacture of Callari Cooperative products. "It can take up to six cleared fields to harvest one crop of cocoa," Ms. Logback reveals. "Much smaller spaces are needed to gather material for necklaces."

Handicrafts have proven to be the only economic alternative that can help a large number of people without causing permanent and large-scale damage to the rainforests.

Ms. Logback has become extremely well-versed about threats to the Amazon and its inhabitants. "Handicrafts have proven to be the only economic alternative that can help a large number of people without causing permanent and large-scale damage to the rainforests," she admits, citing the environmental devastation that results from short-cycle agricultural crops, logging, oil extraction, and strip mining for gold. Informing the public is key to her international promotion of the Callari Cooperative; as she sells its merchandise, she also delivers a message of concern and shared global responsibility.

"All of the contamination in the Amazon has occurred within the last three decades, since developing nations began accessing the petroleum resources," she says, adding that she sees more evidence of pollution, deforestation, and destruction each year. "People have lived there for thousands of years; the river and rainforest are so important to the ecosystems because they hunt and fish for survival. But oil and lumber companies do not use the same technology in the rainforest that they are required to use at home. Therefore, consumers [in other countries] need to keep track of the corporations' practices within foreign nations."

This alumna welcomes opportunities to speak with others, like the Girls and Women in Science participants. She hopes that by sharing her story, she encourages people young and old to apply themselves to work that will ultimately benefit the world.

"If anybody ever challenges you and says you cannot do something, let them tell you that, but prove them wrong," she says. "Because you can."






Contributed by Susan Kasten, Editor of Beloit College Magazine. Reprinted with permission from Beloit College Magazine.

To read another Global Envision article about students' commitment to global social entrepreneurship, see Not All for Money.