BLOOMING BUSINESS - FINALIST
MAURITIUS/MADAGASCAR

Most conservation organisations have come round to the view that there is no future for tropical forests outside heavily protected areas, unless local people get a direct benefit from their utilisation. Flora Marketing Co. was set up to ensure they get that benefit. The company encourages poor communities in the tropics to set up seed banks for traditional plant varieties. Some of these sustainably harvested seeds are sent to Flora Marketing's Mauritius HQ for export to buyers in some 30 countries. The rest are used to reforest degraded land, helping to ensure a future income. The income from seed sales now benefits some 2500 employees around the world, many of them women with no alternative livelihood options. Flora Marketing's policy is that for every dozen seeds harvested, at least four are replanted in the natural habitat.