Help Farmers Rear Silk Moths to Restore Forests

Thanks to our extended CPALI/SEPALI team (that means YOU!) and a very generous donation from the Paul Charitable Trust, we have reached our funding goal of $50,000 and then some.  The "then some" is $678 from the Paul Trust that is dedicated to Stage 2 of our project.  But, before I get into that, here are only...

ELINOR OSTROM We dedicate this newsletter to Elinor Ostrom (1933-2012) who received a Nobel Prize for her recognition of the cooperative ability of communities to increase their financial assets through the sustainable and cooperative management of their environment.  Her work is our inspiration. CPALI/SEPALIM has...

  What an exciting time for CPALI and SEPALI Madagascar!  We recieved the TOP SCORE in the GG-UK  Celebrating Innovation campaign AND a £500 bonus award!  We are honored, and would like to sincerely thank the distinguished, UK-GG panel of judges.  Here is Bob Weber's Award Winning...

Dear GlobalGivers, Things continue to progress in Madagascar.  Mamy has just returned from a trip to South Africa where he received an award from the SEED initiative, and initiative organized by UNEP, UNDP and IUCN to develop enterprise programs that support t\he environment and poverty alleviation.  It was a...

News from The Field After a month of rice harvesting and holiday festivities, SEPALI farmers are eager to start making silk! The SEPALI team has implemented an intensive schedule in order to provide training to the new breeders. Over the past month, SEPALI has provided extensive training workshops to 45 new breeders, 29 of...

I know you would rather hear from Mamy and the team than CPALI US, but until our program is sustainable, we have to continue to work hard in support of SEPALI Madagascar developing new products, new approaches and ideas.  The team has just returned from their annual holiday and are now in the  field so I thought...

Despite the approaching holiday, we have been busy exploring new avenues for our wild silk product. Last week I met three colleagues at Cornell University - a biologist, an economist who has organized Cornell's new sustainability center.  The feedback on the project was really helpful. The Center has offered to...

Just in the wake of my thank you to donors, SEPALI Madagascar has sent a copy of the Farmer's Newsletter for November 2011 (translated to English).  Each newsletter I receive from the team is more impressive than the previous and November 2011 is the best yet - Please join us in celebrating the CPALI_SEPALI Madagascar...

Just in from Madagascar after a great trip to visit our farmers.  SEPALIM organized its first farmer picnic and awards ceremony - it was really exciting - replete with entertainment, great food and farmer pride.  To give you an update, due to the generosity of our donors, the past year has been our most successful...

Latest news in from the field - a CPALI/SEPALI farmer found Ceranchia appolina, a beautiful Malagasy silk moth that we have been searching for far and wide. One of our farmers found it in his back yard and identified the native host plant!  The cocoon is gorgeous and can easily be spun - looks like after a little...

Our latest newsletter from SEPALI Madagascar reports in on its August activities.  SEPALI is scaling-up its farmers program and has recently established 4 womens' groups.  All farmers are working hard to meet a 15 October deadline and earn a new tee-shirt plus SEPALI Madagascar registration card.  The...

Dear Friends and Colleauges, Do you remember the cut and pasted messages from the SEPALI Madagasdar team that I used to send? Well, the team expanded this year adding two new members and as part of their duties, they are now writing a montly newsletter in Malagasy for SEPALI Madagascar farmers. The goal of the newsletter...

All is well with the CPALI/SEPALI-M project in the US/Madagascar.  I just returned from a month long trip and was able to visit all of the farmer groups in all but one of the communities where CPALI?\/SEPALI-M is working.  Progress is steady but slow. The farmers we work with are subsistence farmers and because we...

WOMEN'S PROGRAM UP AND RUNNING!Mamy, Lalaina and Cecile recently returned from Ambalamahago where they are working to organize a women's basket weaving group.  Just before larvae spin cocoons, farmers place them into "spinning baskets"  to protect them from predators.  The women of the village of...

CPALI hits the NY fashion runway From Maroantsetra to the Meat-packing District.  Children's stories about caterpillars turning into butterflies fabulize the potential of a plain caterpillar to become a colorful delicate creature that beautifies the world. The CPALI silk project reverses the narrative: we are...

Activities are hopping in Madagascar and here at home. SEPALIMAD, the local NOG through which CPALI works is making plans to increase farmer numbers. In the attached newsletter Mamy maps out where 5 lead farmers are organizing teams of 10-20 farmers.   In addition to expanded farmer networks, we are now producing both...

Dear Friends, Thank you for your generous support in 2010!  We had a great year and I am writing to brag about our highlights: -1. CPALI farmers have planted over 10,000 trees-2. We have made a financial commitment to 60 farmers and have 40 more lined up to work with us. Mamy believes that with increased funding...

Mamy has just written an update for GG and sent pictures. If you received our recent CPALI newsletter (and if not please sign up on the CPALI webpage, www.cpali.org), you have “met” Rafanoely, a very serious farmer.  Rafanoely is from the village of Ambinanitelo and, in secret, planted silk moth host...

Tom Corcoran has just completed his internship with CPALI. I want to tell you about all the contributions Tom has made to the project to push it ahead. Tom is a student at the University College Cork, Ireland in the International Development and Food Policy department and volunteered to work with CPALI to complete his...

Update from the field 4 July 2010 Dear Friends Today is my last day in Madagascar. I have a day in the city to catch up from the "Tropic Asia". While in Maroantsetra, Tom Corcoran, student intern, was working on a fantastic video for CPALI/MSEPALI - we think the story line is going to be perceptions of Makira...

SEPALI is an organization of the silk producers in the community in the edge of Makira protected area. SEPALI got a permit from the ministry to be a Malagasy NGO since March 22nd 2010. The goal of SEPALI is to work with CPALI to create a new livelihood for the poor farmers living in the edge of Makira primary rain forest...

Dear Friends, The news from CPALI is all good - Farmers are appearing out of everywhere it seems to participate in our program. Even farmers who "do not like conservation" are setting up their own nurseries to work with CPALI/SEPALI as well as the conservation minded farmers. This is tremendous step forward but has also...

Currently 46 serious farmers are starting to set up a nursery. 25 in Ambodivoangy; 12 in Marovovonana; 9 in Ambalamahogo and this number increase every week. Possibly we will have 60 farmers by the end of May. We have been trying to encourage the poorest farmers to work with us, however it has been hard to contact them...

Dear CPALI Supporters, I would like to update you about the progress made by CPALI during the last 3 months. CPALI Madagascar has a new malagasy name " SEPALI" or Sehatry ny MPAmokatra Landy Ifotony which stands for Organisation of Silk producers in the base communities. SEPALI received a permit to operate as a...

Mamy's latest news Denis (CPALI entrepreneur farmer and now team trainer) told me that he got the list of 19 new farmers interested to join the team. Those farmers are waiting for the pot plastics. We are continuing to look for serious farmers ready to work immediately and replace the unserious farmers. So now we have 26...

I have decided to go to Ambodivoangy again with DEnis. Denis trained Jaonary jean and Bernard about how to take care of eggs and new larvae, so right now, Jaonary jean is starting to rear 500 larvae on his tree near the village. Also Jaonary jean has decided to make his farm as a demonstration site, he will copy Manamby...

Dear members of the Global Giving The CPALI team in Madagascar and all the farmer`s associations ( TMA, FTA, ATF, FTM/TM) who work with CPALI want to thank The Global Giving for your funding and support to CPALI program in Maroantsetra- Madagascar. As a CPALI field director , I want to extend my deepest...

It is Sunday night and I have only 3 more days in Madagascar. I am in the capital, Antananarivo and I never enjoy the city as much as being in the field – any field. But it has been a useful week as I have had a chance to discuss the CPALI program with colleagues here. CPALI is trying to accomplish a different kind of...

Dr. Chris Holmes, technical advisor to WCS came by to see the team and our workshop. He was pretty impressed and began snapping pictures. The team smiled obligingly. I had a long talk with Chris about where we are trying to go. We are trying to scale-up the project in support of the Makira Protected Area. However, we need...

Dear Friends and Colleagues, I have now been here in the Maroantsetra area where CPALI has its project headquarters for over two weeks. It has been very productive and fun. The team is working well together. During the past week CPALI had its first workshop to train trainers to make textile/paper. As the week...

At the moment, she is traveling from Maroantsetra to Ambodivoangy to visit the first farmers who have contracted to raise silk worms. Cay will be in Madagascar till early November. Her major goals are to hold a workshop to teach the farmers how to fabricate a kind of paper from the cocoons and to introduce the idea of...

Dear Colleagues and Friends The weather is getting hot again in Maroantsetra and that make emerge the chrysalid fastly, so we have many eggs now, Denis is producing a few cocoons now but for us we had trouble again because many of our larvae were dead at stage 4, but we are still continuing to rear larvae in the garden....

This is an exciting time for CPALI! I am in Antananrivo and on Friday will be sending our first crop to Thailand. Thank you to all who have made this a possibility! With this shipment we will have completed the "proof of concept" stage of the project. We now need to expand and continue to appreciate your help and support....

Hi Tomorrow I`ll go to Ambodivoangy with Judicael by WCS boat. I would like to see the farmers activities there, and also we will meet RANOSY justin`s wife (RANOSY Justin died in April and was one of the CPALI 5). The boat will come back on Wednesday Mario and Bertrand will take care of the house and the rearing....

By Mamy Ratsimbazafy - Local Director We are working hard and looking forward to the end of the rearing season!! Everyday Bertrand and Mario go to the field to collect larvae that we placed on trees for to feed during the last 3 stages of larval development. We collect the larvae and put them in spinning baskets at...

It is currently very rainy in Maroantsetra - good for CPALI and the caterpillars - but not humans! Mario and Bertrand found many stage 5 caterpillars in the field and so far 600 cocoons have been collected from the Maraontsetra rearing site. The team has just located 3 new host plant sites - Vodivohitra, 20 kilometers,...

Thanks to our dedicated staff in Maroantsetra, continued support from WCS, and connectivity via Skype and email, the CPALI project is progressing towards its near term goal of producing 5 kg of silk this season. The volunteer farmers in Ambodivoangy have recently signed contract, pledging to use CPALI methods, with CPALI...