The Shea Terra Legacy Within dwindling forests and shrinking grasslands, one company takes to the mission. Shea Terra Organics has been developing high quality healing products from indigenous African ingredients for a decade. Recognizing the value of uncontaminated raw materials in a fragile world with so much at stake, Shea Terra has culminated a formula for sustainability and fair trade. Living on the brink of destruction, poverty and extinction, both native inhabitants and indigenous wildlife are facing increasing internal and external pressures. Rich in precious resources, Africa stands as one of the last frontiers for exploitation. Foreign pillaging of African hardwoods is destroying thousands of acres of forests which provide wildlife habitat and a rich source of food for natives. Under many political agreements millions of tons of African resources are exported each year without any compensation to native people or consideration for wildlife habitats. Shea Terra Organics does business by a different creed. With respect for native peoples their autonomy and environment, Shea Terra believes that Africans have the right to determine their own destinies and to profit and control their own resources. Shea Terra partners with individuals, and cooperatives while working closely with NGOs to ensure that native trades people, farmers and harvesters not only get Fair Trade prices for their commodities, but that they receive prices that they themselves set. Shea Terra Organics knows that sustainability is the key to Africa's success. In addition to supporting sustainable growth through trade, Shea Terra also purchases goods through NGOs teaching natives to support themselves while preserving their environment. Purchases of baobab oil and indigenous herbs from the Miombo forest help to save it from foreign logging and local slash and burn farming. Reforestation projects underway are aimed at planting trees economically beneficial for food, medicine and non-consumable goods. Honey, propolis and beeswax purchased from a cooperative in Uganda supports one of many other NGO projects that Shea Terra works with closely to empower natives with the knowledge and means that they need to have self governing and healthier lives. Giving natives the opportunities to determine their own destinies and enrich their lives with nourishment and good health, sometimes requires more than just equal exchange. Shea Terra Organics created the Ethiopian Goat Project, which provides goats, grain and training about goat care to families in Ethiopia. The goat's milk provides nourishment for entire families and is vital sustenance for babies. Shea Terra Organics' herbal formulations have healed, soothed and revived thousands of bodies across the globe. Shea Terra's concentrated formulas of exotic African oils and herbs have won it a reputation for performing small miracles. But the real Shea Terra Organics legacy lies in Africa's people, wildlife and land. We've embarked on a global mission knowing that what happens in Africa affects the entire world. If we can save one forest we offset the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. If we can stimulate economic growth through sustainable means then we have empowered a people. And if we can nourish a little body and feed a mind then we have empowered one person to be capable of hope and change.