FTDE and Great Wilderness will attend the Orchid Exhibition in California 2010  to introduce buyers and collectors to an opportunity to support rural communities in Ecuador by purchasing orchids grown sustainably by women in rural western Ecuador.  With the blessing of the Ecuadorian government this project will benefit hundreds of families and generate income for increased education, healthcare, conservation awareness and thwart the illegal collection of plants in national parks, forests and private reserves.

FTDE has identified and photographed 2000 species of orchids in the wild, far more than previously recorded, and is linking the well being of their habitat directly to the well being of the people living with these primitive flowers in the forests of western Ecuador.  For the past eight years, FTDE has been developing an orchid propagation and cloning project that will employ scores of people, mostly women, in the orchid industry.

Ecuador has a thriving flower export business that accounts for a large percentage of GNP.  Orchids will be a great fit in this market, including the specialized collectors market for previously unavailable species that will be cloned under the strict regulations of the government and international regulations.  Currently orchids are “poached” in the wild.  FTDE is creating an alternative to this practice, which is devastating to the biodiversity of the region.