Natura Ekos turns 20 and celebrates with special packaging

In 2020, Natura Ekos, a brand that is a symbol of Natura's connection to the Amazon Rainforest, celebrates 20 years of existence. It was through it that the company adopted the commitment to primarily use brazilian biodiversity assets in product formulas.
The commitment resulted in a sustainable business model together with the communities of the Amazon. According to the last annual report, there are 5,136 partner families and a cumulative total of business in the region of R$ 1.8 billion (from 2010 to 2019).
Balance is the watchword to work in the Amazon. With partners in asset collection and bioagriculture activities, only what is necessary for the species to continue their reproduction as well as the ecosystem linked to them is harvested. In addition, the time of the forest is respected: the harvesting of bioactives is done only when they are available organically in nature.
To mark the two decades of existence, products of the Castanha line (moisturizer, liquid hand soap, hand cream and foot cream) will have a commemorative packaging created by the artist Michelle Cunha from Pará.
Michelle was born in Bethlehem and grew up in the city of Marituba, on a street that ended in a river, playing in the woods. This experience, so deeply associated with nature, marks his work. In her words, she is "a woman artist from the Amazon". It expresses its origin with strong colors and exuberant gestures. Whether it's on canvas, drawings, or graphite.
Michelle is also an art educator and teaches workshops for children and adults in the interior of Pará. And in several cities, she creates workshops to share her experience with graffiti and encourage female participation in the street art scene.
Entering the forest to find the chestnut trees, trees that reach 500 years of life and 70 meters high, is not a simple job. Harvesting chestnut requires attention to the soil, because of snakes, and to the treetops, because a hedgehog (natural wrapper where the chestnuts are) can fall from the branch and, if it hits someone, can be fatal.
Extracting from the chestnut tree only what is needed, leaving more than enough for the forest to continue standing and the ecosystem does not change, is a work of many months, done by families of the Amazon region who, in the rainy season, exchange the swidden and fishing for the search for hedgehogs.
They climb rivers carrying necessary supplies and instruments, lodge near the waters at the depth of the forest, and distribute among them the harvest areas, so that they all benefit.
Respect the time of the forest, live in intimacy with it, know and learn from the forest to expand its geographical limits without harming it, bringing to everyone the benefits that chestnut oil has – this is the journey of the harvest of the chestnut that the art of Michelle Cunha honors.