Can Marketing Save the Rainforest?

Rainforest products are a hot new entry in the buy-and-do-good market. From cereals to buttons to sweet smelling shampoos, they are also the result of a new and not yet completely proven concept in tropical forest conservation.

Kathyrn Alexander saw the green light when she read an article about Cultural Survival, the indigenous-rights group based in Boston. “I was truly inspired,” she remembers. Alexander is president of Tropical Botanicals, a California company that produces such sexy-sounding products as “Passionflower Massage Oil” and “Babacu Nut Body Lotion.”