Conserving Forest Ecosystems through Forest-Based Products (like Ethiopian honey!) with Ariana Day Yuen of Forested Foods

Today, Azora is speaking with Ariana Day Yuen about Ariana's agroforestry enterprise Forested Foods and how it partners with smallholder farmers - starting in Ethiopia - to sustainably grow, process, and market the most distinctive, premium, forest-based products (like honey!), focusing on forest conservation - where forest ecosystems are more lucrative conserved than destroyed - and a more equitable world for forest-based communities.

This episode is part of our four-part series all about sustainable design, curated and hosted by Azora Zoe Paknad of Goldune. On this new FUTURE OF WOMEN Podcast series, Azora speaks with designers, journalists, and agroforestry entrepreneurs about sourcing products and developing supply chains in a way that respects the environment and communities that create them.

ARIANA DAY YUEN

Ariana Day Yuen is the Founder of Forested Foods, an agroforestry enterprise that combats deforestation and conserves biodiversity by partnering with forest communities to sustainably produce forest-based honeys, spices, gums/resins, fruits and more. They launched with Maryiza, a brand of single-origin honeys from Ethiopia's indigenous trees.

Ariana started her career as a management consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton in their DC and New York City offices where she advised clients across the government, non-profit, and private sectors. She then joined TechnoServe as a Fellow in their Ethiopia office and joined them full-time thereafter supporting a range of projects with Nespresso, Gates Foundation, the Swedish Government, Diageo, among others, ultimately design and build more sustainable and equitable value chains and market systems. Ariana grew up in Hong Kong before she moved to the United States to attend Syracuse University, where she triple-majored in Advertising Communications, Entrepreneurship, and Economics. She also attended Yale University for her MBA. She currently resides in Ethiopia.