Help Farmers Rear Silk Moths to Restore Forests

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 silk paper and textile for identified buyers. The team will be shipping samples by the end of February to Greece, England and the US. We are keeping our fingers crossed the buyers will develop exciting new products from them.  The fact that we have had interest in our textile and paper from a diversity of industries (architecture, industrial design, fashion accessories) is quite exciting.

Finally, in a recent trip to New York, I presented CPALI's non-spun textile at a Source4Sustainability exhibition Much to our luck, Tara St. James, winner of the Ecco Doman Fashion Foundation Award for Sustainability,  fell in love with it and has made a long skirt that she will be featuring it in her 14 February Fashion Show.  Needless to say, we are thrilled and will be sending pictures of "CPALI on the runway" from Tara's February show.

All the best,

the CPALI Team

"Back at the ranch", so to speak, CPALI Boston is working hard on identifying new markets and buyers for the non-spun silk textile our producers are making, 

Links:

• CPALI website

• SEPALIMAD newsletter from Mamy (PDF)
  

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 and more staff, 900 farmers will be farming wild silk host plants within a year.
-3. Our textile was juried and accepted in the the Material ConneXion libraries giving access to designers in New York, Bangkok, Cologne, Daegu and Milan. 
 -4. Patent pending for our non-textile
-5. Trained 5 women to make the textile.
-6. Initiated rearing of silkworms in the field.
-7. Established a new NGO, SEPALI Madagascar to be our local partner and eventually take over our work in country. 
-8. Set-up a new in-field farmers network where 5 lead farmers have been trained to oversee the work of 10-20 community farmers.
-9. Established new plant nurseries in 3 new communities, Ambalamahogo, Marovovonana, Ambinantelo,  and          a second farmers group in Ambodivoagany.
-10. Established a partnership with Cork University, Ireland, to support interns in international development and  supported our first intern, Tom Corcoran, who made a video of CPALI's work. 

We could not have done this without your help and we hope you will consider continuing your support in the coming year.  

In the meantime, please accept our holiday wishes!

All the best,

Catherine Craig, President and the CPALI team.

Links:

• CPALI, home, website
• Action Altas