As the leading company in the Fragrance and Flavor industry, Givaudan serves customers around the world with innovative products through a sales and marketing presence in all major mature and developing markets. This leadership is underpinned by a commitment to significantly invest in consumer understanding tools and research and development programs.  Based in Vernier, Switzerland, Givaudan operates a sustainable business model that enables the company to proactively address possible business opportunities which emerge from different economic, environmental and social developments.

In February 2007, Givaudan and CI's Conservation Stewards Program embarked on a partnership to support the conservation of the Caura River Basin by using conservation agreements to secure protection of key areas for biodiversity, improve commercialization of Sarrapia (Tonka Bean) and enhance the quality of life of local communities.  The project has produced exciting results that are helping to solidify the conservation of the Caura Basin, support the local communities, gain endorsement of the Venezuelan government through the Ministry of the Environment and strengthen the commercial relations between the producers, Cerbatana (the buyer) and Givaudan.  

The project was structured under three key areas:

1) Conservation, to better understand the biological priorities, the threats, the conservation area to be defined, and the actions to be taken by the community of Aripao.  All these are key elements of the feasibility analysis that CI recommends to do before a conservation agreement is implemented;

2) Sustainable supply of Sarrapia, to promote a more stable production of Tonka, determine routes to expand the collection, identify new products such as Copaiba and training opportunities to diversify the commercial activity; and

3) Working with communities to ensure strengthening local structures to support the commercialization process, engage them in the conservation of the area and provide incentives as part of the implementation of the conservation agreement.

For more information on Givaudan, please visit www.givaudan.com.