Virtually every culture on earth has deeply rooted basket-weaving traditions. The following organizations, all of which work with the Fair Trade Federation, are helping to preserve those traditions while raising the living standards of artisans in Third World countries.

Earth Bound (www.earthboundinc.org): Builds partnerships with cooperatives and collectives, such as the Ye’kwana of Venezuela, to develop and sell their wares.

Aid to Artisans (www.aidtoartisans.org): Advises craftspeople on product design and marketing and helps them build relationships with vendors, including retail chains like Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn.

La Vida Verde (www.lavidaverde.com): Imports Latin American arts and crafts made from renewable materials.

To Buy (from top): Venezuelan basket, imported by Earth Bound, $85, ABC Carpet & Home, 212-473-3000. Honduran coiled junco-reed basket, $18 for a set of three, www.aidtoartisans.org. Nicaraguan pine-needle basket, imported by La Vida Verde, $25, www.lavidaverde.com. Colombian woven-iraca trays, $42 for three, www.aidtoartisans.org.

Made in the U.S.A.

“America has its own basketry tradition, with local guilds in every state,” says Michael Davis, president of the National Basketry Organization, in Brasstown, North Carolina. Among the manufacturers still doing handmade work:

Sweet Grass Baskets (www.sweet-grassbaskets.com), in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, produces coiled designs made of sweetgrass, bulrushes, pine needles, and palmetto leaves.

In business since 1876, the Day Basket Factory (www.daybasketfactory.com), in North East, Maryland, specializes in white-oak baskets.

Since 1948, the Four Winds Craft Guild (www.islandbaskets.com) has been selling Nantucket Lightship baskets made by local craftsmen.

Longaberger (www.longaberger.com), a family-run company in Newark, Ohio, offers traditional woven-maple baskets.