Sustainability Efforts

Rainforest Remedies embodies the principles of the economic value of preserving the rainforest for its healing plants. By offering employment to the local community and validating the economic value of the vibrant living plants of the rainforest, it leads the way in helping to educate the local community about the unique resources at their doorstep. Many plants are harvested from land that’s scheduled for clearing and development. Dr. Arvigo calls this work "Salvage Botany," saving valuable medicinal plants that would otherwise be destroyed.

Many of the herbs in Rainforest Remedies products are sustainably wildcrafted at Arco Iris Permaculture Farm and the surrounding area. All of the medicinal plants used in Rainforest Remedies, whether through Salvage Botany or permaculture farming, are always gathered using traditional methods and prayers. Mature plants are gathered, while young and tender plants are transplanted at Arco Iris’s nursery. Once these have grown, they’re either replanted in the wild or grown on at the farm for harvest. The plant harvesters are young Maya people from the community that now show renewed interest in traditional medicine.

Herb knowledge that otherwise would have been lost, is now very much alive. Many of the herbs in Rainforest Remedies’ formulas are unique to Belize and Central America. The extremely competitive environment that is the rainforest, creates uniquely powerful plants that grow in highly nutrient-rich, virgin soil, bathed in specialized micronutrients. These micronutrients, along with a full spectrum of trace elements drawn from virgin soil make these wild herbs valuable, concentrated foods. The medicinal plant tinctures contain bio-active compounds to assist normal metabolic functions of the body.