KarunaNews Story

In the Peruvian Andes, sustainable harvesting of the sphagnum moss used in hanging baskets and vivariums is helping women thrive. While high-altitude communities have relied on farming crops such as potatoes, climate change, volatile sale prices, and El Niño are making traditional lifestyles more challenging. Where the moss would have been burnt to make way for potato crops, local people now sustainably harvest moss with the help of Inka Moss, a registered B Corp. Of the 15,000 producers it has worked with, almost two-thirds are women. Thanks to social lender Shared Interest, collectors are paid as soon as the moss is harvested. Inka Moss has protected some 5,000 hectares of forest from burning, and contributed over 1,100 tons of moss to the global export market - about one fifth of Peru's total export.