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 provide funds for a graduate student to set up a water and soils monitoring program in Madagascar!  If you know of a Cornell graduate student who is up for the challenge, please have them contact me directly. 

A second colleague in materials science is taking up the challenge of characterizing the silk for  possible nano-matierals and a third, an expert in "green" composite materials, will explore the behavior of the textile when combined with other natural materials.  Natural composites is a 2 billion dollar a year market  . .  and will keep the project GG Green.  Needless to say I am thrilled.

Mamy and the team are on leave for the holidays so I expect that the next newsletter may be delayed until the end of January.  But on Thursday Mamy let me know that SEPALI-Madagascar had recieved a SEED award (www.seedinit.org)! SEED is a UN/UNDP/IUCN  program that  provides business training to entrepeneurs - being IUCN and UNDP supported it is right up our line - and this year they focussed on Africa.  Mamy will accept the award in South Africa in January and then SEED will provide in-country business training in February - business training is just what the team needs!

Its been a great - lets make the next on even better!

Thank you from the teams here in the US and Madagascar.

Links:

• CPALI/SEPALI website
• SEED Initiative website

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 family and help us make next year as good as the last.

All the best,

Cay

P.S. have you considered a gift to CPALI_SEPALIM to honor your loved ones? 

Piroette receives special recognition

Textile production continues

Mamy's Banquet Bamboo Server

Rearing baskets made by women's groups

Links:

• CPALI_SEPALI Madagascar website
• Trozona plays the accordian at Farmer's picnic
• Miara miasoatra (working together)

• SEPALI Madagascar November newsletter (PDF)
  

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 yet in terms of convincing farmers and rural artisans to participate in the CPALI /SEPALI Madagascar program. Your donations have allowed us to register 126 farmers (69 men and 57 women) from 6 communities. Among those registered, 43 have planted a minimum of 250 trees each either on existing farms or degraded pasture. Hence, a grand total of 15,000 silkworm host trees have been added to the border forest surrounding the Makira Protected Area.

We now have 12 farmers who are breeding A. suraka and 5 farmers who have deposited cocoons in SEPALI’s “cocoon bank.” Our innovative cocoon banking system allows farmers to build their assets while the SEPALI team transforms the cocoons into non-spun textile and silk paper. To date, we have sold approximately 10m of silk textile and silk paper (about $1,000) in Greece, the US, New Zealand, and England.

In 2011, we also introduced women’s working groups. Five women’s groups comprising 40 women total (th number continues to grow) have been organized to make the nets and baskets that farmers need to raise larvae. The money the women earn is used to purchase sugar, oil, and petrol. The earnings of the SEPALI men, however, are longer in coming because it takes 2 years for the trees to grow large enough to produce a full crop. Nevertheless, seeing the women getting paid encourages them that there is indeed a profit at the end of the silk tunnel.

Our third innovation for 2011 is the formation of both women’s and farmers’ networks managed by elected lead farmers. Leaders of 11 community groups meet at CPALI/SEPALI Madagascar’s headquarters once every 3 months to exchange experiences, receive training, and brainstorm ideas for the future. These meetings and SEPALI’s annual picnic bring farmers together to build new partnerships and relationships. In some cases, the SEPALI picnic represented the first time farmers had traveled outside their village to a neighboring village less than 5 miles away.

Finally, the most exciting result of our work in 2011 is the enthusiasm and pride of the men and women who have realized that they are the owners of the silk project.

Henri Mani, one of our more musically inclined farmers, wrote a song, Miara Miasoatra (working together) that you can see being performed in precision on youtube: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8sPuAYqPZw.

Thank you for your continued support of CPALI/SEPALI Madagascar and Happy Thanksgiving!

Links:

• For more newsletters and updates

• SEPALI Madagascar newsletter (PDF)
  

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 additional research we may be raising a new species - and by the way the moth is spectacular.  I have attached a pictureof the male and female.

Also attached is the September newsletter dedicated to our new women's groups.  We are really excited that some of the women have convinced their husbands to join the silk production team and husbands are convincing their wives to sign up for product finishing.

Finally I will be visiting in October and looking forward to seeing up close and personal the 250 trees planted by the 60+ farmers who participated in the t-shirt competition - will let you know the new team t-shirt design.

All the best,

Cay

Links:

• Search for CPALI news on Google

• SEPALI Madagascar newsletter (PDF)
  

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 attached newsletter is dedicated to them.

Additional news:  Thanks to our generous donors, we are now able to open offices in two of the communities where  SEPALI Madagascar is working.  The offices (one-room building) serve as a meeting place when the team is present as well as a place for the team to sleep thus enabling them to spend longer in the communities on their visits. In the attached photo, you can see members of the village of Ambodivoagny lining up to read the SEPALI poster.

Best wishes and thank you for your support and interest in our project!

Cay

New SEPALI headquarters in village of Ambodivaogny

Links:

• CPALI website

• August newsletter from SEPALI Madagascar (PDF)
  

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 is to build an interactive community where silk farmers have a forum to "meet" fellow farmers as well as exchange new ideas and tips.  In addition, the newsletter informs farmers of fun events, competitions and up-coming deadlines.  I will be sending you these monthly updates from Madagascar - translated into English. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

All the best,

Cay

• SEPALI Madagascar newsletter (PDF)
  

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 are an added-income project AND because we don't pay wages, we work around the rice farming schedule.  We have, however, hired our "star" farmers  for 3-days a month to assist others and gather data on their progress. We are building a farmers' network based on existing social networks and family groups.

I am happy to report that have we two new team members, Peace Corp volunteer Kerry O'Neill and RAHARINDIMBY Lalaina ---and things have never been better.  Lalaina will be working with our new, women's, basket weaving group (making baskets for farmers to use) in Ambalamahago and keeping track of SEPALI-M's finances. Kerry will be gathering environmental data to monitor the project and working with team members in the villages; she is just the type of person one would want representing the US in a foreign country - hard working, enthusiastic, learning the local dialect and a sense of humor and engaging.  With an increase in team size we will be able to have someone in the communities every week and visit each community 1-2 times a month.  We are at a critical time for the project as our farmers will decide whether the work they invest in raising silk worm larvae is worth the financial payoff. Although we have already done studies to suggest that it will be, one never knows.

Stay tuned and thank you for all you have done to assist our project.

Mani and Mamy in CPALI's new pirogue

Links:

• CPALI website

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 Ambalamahago are known for their weaving ability and supply many of the baskets sold in the Maroantsetra market.  Lalaina and Cecile's goal was to introduce the women to the new baskets designed by Denis and Mamy especially for larvae. Their hope is that by organizing local women to make spinning baskets (and earn added income), silk worm rearing activities will be encouraged.  Groups working together to make the needed baskets may become the precursor groups to those who choose to make  textiles and paper. Finally, perhaps the most exciting aspect of  Lalaina and Cecile's project  is its focus on women.  CPALI has not yet implemented activities specifically for women despite the fact that women have a significant effect on the MPA albeit different than that of the men. As can be seen in the picture to the right, at least initially, women's activities need to be village based due to the many children that tie women to their homes.

CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE
Its not to late to order the BEST CHOCOLATE IN THE WORLD for your spring and summer celebrations (and give a nod to CPALI!). Madécasse makes chocolate in Madagascar and was recently named One of the 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World by Fast Company Magazine. Organized by two former Peace Corp volunteers, Tim McCollum and Bret Beach, Madécasse invests in small scale,cocoa farmers in Northwestern Madagascar. Tim and Brett not only provide a market for cocoa, but teach the farmers how to process the cocoa and hence earn greater returns. While 70% of the world's cocoa comes from Africa, less than 1% is made there -Tim and Bret's innovations help fight poverty in this tiny corner of the world, and now they are helping CPALI.

Visit the Madécasse website ( http://store.madecasse.com/). And before you place your order, write "cpali" (no caps) in the coupon code/promotional code box. 20% of all chocolate profits will be contributed to CPALI to help us expand our work with silk farmers in Madagascar.

Oblong cacao pod reveals pulpy fruit and beans

Links:

• Chocolate from Madagascar benefits CPALI

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 striving to capitalize on the ephemeral creations of high fashion to generate the funds and attention that can preserve nature by benefiting people at the base of the pyramid. Thanks to lots of hard work by farmers and sewers in Madagascar, and help from our new friends in the fashion industry, a piece of wild silk textile made in Maroantsetra appeared in the Meat-packing district in a runway display during the New York, 2011 Fall Fashion Week http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/02/14/fashion/201220214SCENE_FW-9.html. 

Early in 2011, Summer Rayne Oakes, the founder of Source4Stylewww.source4style.com introduced Tara St. James, the founder of Study NY www.notjustalabel.com/study_ny to CPALI. Tara used two meters of CPALI's patent-pending, nonwoven textile to make a strikingly beautiful, ethereal skirt that was modeled by Kelly in the Fall 2011 presentation by Study New York. We hope that such exposure and the attention generated by the silk's inclusion in the Source4Style and the Material Connexion libraries will connect us to customers whose purchases will encourage the farmers and the team - According to Mamy, " Everybody is looking at those pictures. Our hope is to get this project improve, and that was good news".  Thank you Tara St. James!

Wild silk in its glory

Wild silk in its glory

Links:

• CPALI in the NY Times

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

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 plants on his farm. After the plants became large enough to support larvae, he contacted Mamy of help. Below  are Mamy’s photos of his visit to Rafanoley’s farm. In addition to the 60 farmers who are currently growing host plants, the "CPALI 5" are beginning to rear larave -  Mamy's tally of who is raising what in the field is included below.

"I arrived in Maroantsetra yesterday.  I brought 150 chrysalids to the field, Rafanoely took 50 and Jaonary jean took 100. 3 farmers are starting to rear larvae: Bernard, Jaonary jean and Rafanoely. Marivelo and Pierrette also are ready to start, so I will send 25 chrysalids to each of them.  Bernard have many chrysalids already, he got that from his own rearing.   Summary: the cocoons production is starting in Ambodivoangy with TMA member and in Ambinanitelo with Rafanoely".  (NB: each chrysalid produces one adult; if the adult is a female she will mate and produce about 200 eggs. The sex ration of the chrysalids is 1:1. Therefore, 25/50 females will produce about 5000 eggs. Each larvae produces one cocoon; 4000 cocoons equals 1 kilo or $33).

Below are some picture of Ambinanitelo village, Rafanoely`s land and his rearing.  Rafanoely`s land have many talandoha trees already existing, it`s 2 hours walk from the village and the same high as Bernard`s land."

Thank you very much.

Mamy

and a Happy Thanksgiving from all the team - US and Madagascar!

Mamy and Rafanoely net a tree

Links:

• NGS Action Atlas
• CPALI newsletter signup

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 field study for the university's field requirement. I don't know how CPALI could be so lucky but I hope that we have opportunities for future "Toms" in the future.

When Tom arrived, he had a variety of projects outlined that he had proposed to choose from: 1) Make a movie of the CPALI project; 2) assist CPALI in grant writing to expand our work more rapidly, and 3) work with Mamy to put in place and expand our new farmer training network program. Tom didn't just select a project, he completed all three.

Tom helped SEPALI Madagascar submit its first grant proposal to the Global Environmental Fund. We hope you will keep your fingers crossed that we will receive funding. The major activity, as recommended by Tom, is to establish a teaching and marketing center in a location that is central to the four communities where we are working. With this "center" we would be able to offer extended technical support to our farmers, increase their access to us, set-up new nurseries and a center for training textile producers within walking distance of all the villages in which we work.

Tom's second accomplishment was to help Mamy extend our farmer networks. Tom knew no Malagasy when he arrived but that didn't seem to bother him. After arranging for his own tutoring program in town, and then armed with a few words, he took to the villages. Tom soon made friends up and down the river. Most important, was the friendship he established with Henri Mani, a school teacher in Ambodivoaghany. Together, Henri, Mamy and Tom worked to convince farmers to join CPALI/SEPALI farmer teams. CPALI and now SEPALI Madagascar (the Malagasy NGO founded by CPALI in country directory, Mamy Ratsimbazafy) have over 100 farmers committed to our program. None of these farmers are paid salaries but know that they have a market for the future goods they will produce. Moreover, Tom loves children and you can see from his video, the special attention they receive. This work, a new focus for CPALI and SEPALI Madagascar will be critical to raising the next generation of educated farmers who really understand what conservation is and why it is important. Tom and Mamy have worked extremely diligently to make our new farmer-teams inclusive and accessible to disadvantaged villagers who have less desirable farmland and live closer to the Makira forest.

Finally, Tom is a talented photographer. During his many visits to the villages he soon established a group of followers (usually under the age of 10!). He photographed homes, families, children at work, play and in school. He gave all those he photographed copies of the picture he took making sure that the communities knew CPALI/SEPALI Madagascar would not be going away. Tom's pictures best reflect his commitment and love for the Malagasy people and his belief in the CPALI program. He has made a preview of a 1/2 film for GG donors that you can access by linking to our site on the National Geographic's Action Atlas (GG doesn't "do" videos). Razia Said and Henri Mani provide original music -

Thank you for your loyalty to CPALI and now SEPALI Madagascar. We will continue to work to make you proud and ensure that the generous funds you have donated are making a difference in Madagascar.

All the best, Cay

Links:

• Preview of CPALI video by Tom Corcoran
• Check out our Thank you to Tom and Mamy's wedding picture!

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 people of forest conservation - when Tom interviewed the president of the TMA – the farmers association that was set up to manage the border forests edging the Makira Area -Tom asked the president what he thought conservation/biodiversity was - The President replied “it means setting up an NGO. We hope that we will be better able to educate community members through the CPALI program.

Mamy is now organizing our farmer networks - 1 lead farmer for 9 farmers - the lead farmer will take data on farmer economics as well as the sites where the trees are planted. We will have a special training session for the leaders and hopefully with the new solar powered, crank radios we can stay in better touch.

Mamy and the team are working on setting up a board for the new MSEPALI. Everyone is very excited about it. Our first new board member will be a Malagasy PhD student from UC Berkeley, Tendro Ramaharita. He is working with farmers in the area doing land mapping and assessment. He is taking baseline data that he has kindly agreed to allow us to use when we begin to compare CPALI project effects.

We had our second textile workshop - three women who had participated before and two new ones. This time with two industrial sewing machines that were "new" - at least to us and Madagascar. Each machine had a name tag of the previous owners - Mercedes and Flower. We think they probably came from a Chinese, industrial garment factory. The crew soon became pros at making the textile and we now can do it much faster. We were only slowed down by the fact that we did not have more machines. I am sure that we will be able to use solar powered machines and take this work to the village.

The biggest remaining news is that Mamy is getting married to Lalaina Raharindimby! She is planning to move to Maroantsetra - she manages a major hotel in Tana. Given her business skills, she would be a great asset to the project - keep you fingers crossed that our next proposal is funded.

Thank you again for your generous support.

Cay

Catherine L. Craig, PhD CPALI CEO and President

Fanja pieces textile together

9 feet and counting!

Links:

• CPALI website

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 through developing a wild silk business marketing and help farmers to set up their own business. After four years of research, 4 species of silkmoths have been identify in this area: Antherina suraka SATURNIDAE; Argema mitrei SATURNIDAE; Hypsoides singularis NOTODONTIDAE; Boroceras sp LASIOCAMPIDAE. Currently, the first species of silk moth (Antherina suraka) has been introduced in the communities after several experiments in the SEPALI demonstration sites.

Currently, the main SEPALI`s work is focused on sensibilisation. SEPALI sensibilate farmers in the four communities of Makira protected area. In five months, SEPALI found at least sixty interested farmers in the four communities of Makira: Ambodivoangy, Marovovonana, Ambalamahogo, and Ambinanitelo. Each farmers will farm at least 250 food plant trees, 5 serious farmers were finish to farm 1200 trees in their land. SEPALI team visits each community at least once a month and teach farmers about all methods of the silk production procedures. The farmers must set up a nursery food plant and take care of the seedlings.

The number of interested farmers increases every week. Probably SEPALI will have a hundred interested farmers by the end of 2010. Until May 2010, 5000 trees have been planted in the field by the farmers and 12000 seedling grow in the four nurseries.

The future SEPALI`s objectives:

1- The SEPALI workshop: In June 2010, SEPALI will organize a workshop in Maroantsetra demonstration site. At least 6 selected artists from each community will attend this workshop. The goal of this workshop are to train and teach the community to make a local product accepted by international market. So after producing their own silk, they will make a product and set up their own business. 2- The SEPALI research program: The future objective is to increase the number of farmers until 500 farmers by the end of 2011. Those farmers must germinate their seeds and plant their seedlings in their land and then, they will follow several trainings organized by SEPALI. Antherina suraka is our first specie of silk moth introduced in the communities. One of the main goal of SEPALI is to produce several kinds of wild silk in the communities of Makira protected area. During this year, SEPALI will strengthen the research program about the second specie of silk moth: Argema mitrei SATURNIDAE.

Currently, SEPALI is studying the Argema food plant. The result of our experiment has demonstrated that this specie exist in the edge of Makira protected area. We have scheduled to introduce the Argema rearing program into the community on 2011. By the end of this year, SEPALI must identify the Argema food plant tree .

RATSIMBAZAFY Mamy ( SEPALI founder) May 2010.

Suraka cocoons produced at SEPALI in Maroantsetra

Ambodivoangy farmers taking care of their nursery

Ambalamahogo farmers taking care of their nursery.

Argema mitrei: SEPALI second species

Argema cocoon to be produced by the farmers

Daughter of Denis Ramsay, CPALI's field manager

Links:

• CPALI on Action atlas
• Article about CPALI and Cay in the Lincoln Journal

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 resulted in a lot more work for the team which is extended to its limits. I am encouraging the team to look for local people who might help us and who we can hire. I had to "forbid" Mamy from going into the field next week - he is recovering from malaria. The team has been getting sick mainly because during the missions they have been eating what ever was available locally, rice and greens and water and they need more to be able to work (as do the farmers we are introducing to the program) . So in the future, the team is going to need to take porters, sleeping nets, more food to make their trips more effective etc. Mamy has helped organize SEPELI Farmer Associations in multiple villages who have elected a president. The president's are individuals that come to Maroantsetra frequently and can take information back to the farmers. Everyday there are many farmer visitors to our demonstration site in Maroantsetra - and it get's better!

Marie Jean, Denis and Mamy have now found an area in the south where there are many Argema mittrei - this is quite fantastic because Argema is the second species that we want farmers to rear and it produces a silk that is even nicer than suraka, according to some buyers. With all the good news, I am hoping to find philanthropic investors. The idea is that a philanthropic investor will get a return on their investment - but not a venture capital return - a return over a longer time period. The term currently in vogue is "patient capital investment" and is the approach taken by the Acumen Fund. Our goal is to set-up a lasting business for the area.

On the US front, we have just signed an engagement letter (pro bono) with an IP law firm who is helping us file a provisional patent for our non-spun textile! James Toupin, who has just joined the CPALI board on his retirement from being head council in the US patent office, helped set this up. Needless to say we are thrilled.

GlobalGiving is having a one day fund drive, 16 June, and will be matching all donations up to $1,000 per donor per project for projects on the www.GlobalGiving.org at 50% match. Please help us raise funds by giving generously and contacting friends an family. A 50% match is as good as it gets and we REALLY need an influx of funds to meet current and increasing demand for CPALI/SEPALI assistance.

Please donate on 16 June - Mark your calendar not to mention add a beep reminder to your black berry, iphone, computer.

All the best,

The CPALI/SEPALI Team

Mamy meets with new farmers

On the way to the village

Links:

• check out our site updates and sign-up for the newsletter

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 because they are always in the field. Therefore, we began scheduling our first meetings from 5-8 AM before they leave. We then continue our meetings at 8 PM after they have returned home.

This week the main work of CPALI/SEPALI team is to look for seedlings. The total of the seedling that we need to give to the farmers is at least 6000 , Denis has already taught farmer about germinating seeds. The first germination will be after 2 months. Now, the chrysalid are going to emerge, everyday Mario put the females on the trees to lay eggs.

Bertrand take care of the trees and the fence. He is cleaning the house we make effort to avoid the rats to get in the house. Tomorrow, both Mario and Bertrand go to the field to look for seedlings. Denis got a new phone orange.I spend a lot of my time to work on the computer and to receive many farmers who want to talk with me. I update WCS about cpali activities. I`m trying to set up a good communication between cpali and the farmers in each coba. I received many letters from different farmers to inform cpali about their improvements.

I have attached copies of our new SEPALI association cards that each farmer participating in the program receives. It seems to have become very "in" to have a SEPALI card in one's pocket.

• New SEPALI entrepreneur business card (PDF)
  

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 Malagasy national NGO. All our participating farmers in Madagascar have become automatic members of our new local NGO . The NGO permit allows farmers to export their finish products, and set up their own business marketing. SEPALI has a permit to work nationally in Madagascar.

The constant support from Global giving has allowed SEPALI to increase our capacity by four new farmers each month. We are going to extend our activities in the four communities in the border of Makira protected area. Your helps has allowed us to organize a teaching and training program in each communities which allows farmers to produce the first grade silk and also to produce finished products that they can sell in the local market or for exportation.

Now, SEPALI really need to strengthen their activities in the communities to provide enough materials to set up one demonstration site on each community . The demonstration site in each communities allows farmers to get knowledge about the different steps of silk production.

During the 3 coming months, SEPALI team will continue to visit each community and try to visit all interested farmers land. By the end of this year, several farmers will be ready to produce their first cocoons.

SEPALI will update you about each step of our activities

Thank you very much Mamy ( Cpali project leader and SEPALI founder)

Links:

• CPALI March newsletter

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 serious farmers in Ambodivoangy; 5 in Ambalamahogo, 13 in Marovovonana, + Denis and Marie jeanne= so now we have 46 serious farmers in the coba (community managed forest). Jaonary jean (CPALI entrepreneur farmer) said that he met 6 farmers in Andaparaty very interested to join the team and they will visit Jaonary jean's site. About the rearing: both of Denis and Mario (CPALI project employees) have new larvae and also many eggs, so they are focusing there work on raisins larvae until I come back to Maroantsetra. I plan to come back to Maroantsetra on next week. Update from Cay Craig, CPALI CEO Being in the US I have been working on developing our market as well as our non-spun textile. Thanks to the skill of Sylvia Weber, we now have a beautiful, unique textile that is sewn using our suraka cocoons and the stitching is invisible. The textile, (it is the background of the CPALI webpage, www.cpali.org) is generating a lot of market interest. Next week I will be presenting it to George M. Beylerian at the Material Connexion in New York (http://www.materialconnexion.com/) a center that maintains 5 libraries of unique and new materials world wide that are accessed by various industries. This is a great opportunity and I hope our textile is selected for display. As a head up, the librarian has already told us he thinks it is "cutting edge". March 16 is a fund raising day at Global Giving - the will provide a 30% match for all donations but they donation must be made on Tuesday.

Marie Jean shows off her first crop of cocoons

Links:

• sign up for CPALI's blog/newsletter

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 and Maroantsetra, and now he is working on that. He is starting to build a small house for the eggs on his land and he will set up every thing that may interest the visitors. that`s a great idea.

Also I met the mayor of Ambinanitelo in Ambodivoangy and I invited him to visit the TMA`s nursery and also Jaonary jean`s future demonstration site and all of that have been done. Even the mayor will visit Maroatsetra site on this coming week.

Also, one of the purpose of my trip in Ambodivoangy is the meeting with the new farmers, I was so sad about that because they did not work seriously. so a new list of interested farmers will be publish on next week. I tryed to meet a new farmers to replace the person who did not work seriously.

I reveived a news from marie jeanne also, and I heard that she is raising many Larvae on her land and already produced many cocoons, using DEnis`s instructions.

Sincerely, Mamy

Bertrand and Mario at CPALI House

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 appreciation for your support . The global giving`s funds allow us to improve the wildsilk production and the forest restoration in the border of Makira protected area. After 3 years work, CPALI is well known in the community, we are in the best position to persuade farmers and link them to the conservation program through the silk production. Now 50 farmers in the 4 communities of Makira protected area are ready to work with us. Each farmers will plant between 250 to 1000 food plant trees until June 2010.

CPALI malagasy team and the 50 farmers wish merry christmas to all members of the Global giving.

Thank you for your support to this program and best wishes

Mamy, CPALI field Director.

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 conservation program than has been tried in the past. In the 90’s there was an effort to introduce various small-scale enterprise programs in developing countries in support of conservation. Unfortunately more than 90% of the programs failed and even among those that did not, none that I know of developed robust markets for the products that were being introduced. Unfortunately, the general public and especially the conservation groups, have not fully analyzed why these programs failed. In my opinion, the direct cause of those failures was that the individuals implementing the programs did not develop sustainable markets and an infra-structure to support them.

CPALI has been working to develop a market for wild silk since before we even began our fieldwork. Despite our efforts and an innovative marketing plan, and the fact that we have identified some buyers, we are not there yet. If we are to realize our dream of establishing a robust, Malagasy, conservation enterprise that can support Madagascar’s unique biological habitats, we will need to work closely with other conservation organizations to do so. The enterprise requires geographic and economic scale to be profitable and to be effective in saving the fragile habitats we have targeted. Achieving that scale requires a unified effort across the island. We hope that other groups will replicate our program and will work together to continue to build the markets that we have started to identify. My conversations with others during the past week have focused on updating the conservation and development community about just those issues.

When I return to the States I will continue to advocate this approach and prepare for my return to Madagascar, currently scheduled to coincide with the Spring harvest of the second crop of cocoons. Mamy Ratsimbazafy, our project manager, has participated in all of the conversations this past week and I am very glad to have his continued supervision of the project in the coming months. He believes that he can enlist 20 more farmers by the end of the year, bringing our total to about 50 (from 5 in January, 2009). It is important to note that all of the farmers have "skin in the game"--they get rewarded for results when we buy their output, not merely for participation during the training and site visits.

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 funds. WCS is the recipient of funds from all major donors to support the Makira Area. Their micro-credit center is working well, which is great news for future farmers who want to borrow funds to expand their silk programs. However WCS’s own efforts to create livelihood programs still need work.

We are trying to work towards a collaboration that will combine CPALI’s approach with WCS’s access to funding.

CPALI ‘s goal is to scale up to 500 farmers by the end of 2010. Our problem is that we are small, with a very limited paid staff. Hence CPALI needs to grow to help the project scale. We were hoping to receive funds from USAID but because of the political situation, USAID is still precluded from distributing anything but humanitarian aid. A project costing $500,000 is small for a USAID grant but requires extensive logistical support to process. We are between the proverbial rock and a hard place – we need funds to grow and hire staff but we can’t get funds until we grow and have a larger staff!

We will continue to talk with WCS to find a way to better meld our respective resources and approaches.

We will also be approaching, Tany Meva, a Malagasy foundation that is the recipient of funds from the MacArthur Foundation for livelihood programs in Madagascar. Tany Meva contracts out the work to Malagasy NGO. With our recent success, Chris has kindly agreed to call a meeting in Tana of WCS, CPALI and the director of Tany Meva who has always been quite receptive to us but unable to help us directly.

As an added/alternative approach, would be working to establish a Malagasy CPALI – then we could receive funds directly from Tany Meva. Mamy has started the paperwork to make CPALI Madagascar (or some more appropriate name) a reality. We are trying to think of an appropriate and reverent name – we are thinking of Ny Sabaka (our caterpillars), paralleling the name of Ny Tanintsika, the Malagasy organization who makes the textiles sold on the suraka site. We are open to suggestions!

Closeup of the non-spun textile

Large piece of silk "paper" made by the Maroantsetra team

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 progressed, the team worked together to greatly improve on what I had done before coming here. The result is really stunning and I am excited to bring our new pieces home. We are making a silk "paper" with the cocoons that is wonderful for window shades and standing screens.

We have also had a pleasing reception from various conservation organizations in Madagascar. Because our program is working and villagers are coming to us to participate in the project, we are looking good! CPALI shares its learning broadly and is receptive to villager input and suggestions. For example, originally we wanted villagers to plant 1000 trees per farmer. However this seemed to limit the project to only the wealthiest farmers and especially not the ones we most wanted to reach. Now we are happy to have villagers plant as many trees as they would like but we recommend a 200 tree minimum to make the program financially viable for the families. That many trees will allow farmers to produce about 10000 cocoons with earnings up to $80. As a result, about 10 more farmers from Ambodivaogany immediately signed and we expect to have 50 farmers lined up to participate by the end of 2009! This is an order of magnitude increase and we are thrilled. Of course, 50 farmers names on paper saying they are committed is very different from 50 farmers who actually do something but nevertheless, we are greatly pleased.

In case you haven’t gotten the word, CPALI is now featured on the National Geographic’s Action Atlas site. I have been blogging almost daily with a special section for the Leapin’ Lemurs, Mrs. Leslie’s 5th grade class in New Mexico. We have now added a few more classes in Pennsylvania. My goal was to try to give an idea of what it is like trying to implement a conservation program in the field. So far it seems to be going well – If you know of any schools who might want to follow the 5th grade blog as well as comment on other aspects of the discussion, please let them know. The website is given below, click on it then search for "CPALI"

Best wishes,

Cay

Silk paper made by the team

Silk paper made by Mario.

Links:

• Search for CPALI's link

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 farmer networks--an echelon structure that will allow the more entrepreneurial farmers to enlist their peers to scale the CPALI project to the point that it advances from demonstration to true production.

Today I learned that the CPALI project has been admitted to Global Giving's "Green" list, which gives us greater access to matching funds and corporate visibility. Of course, we are striving to make the project economically self-sufficient and have this year covered about 5% of our operating expenses with silk-derived revenue--small but, hey, it's a start.

Cay is also scouting for new sites that will leverage well with plans of the large conservation organizations who are active in Madagascar. So far, the major effects she has felt from the political situation has been uncertainty about getting export permits for when we want to move production quantities of silk--the officials who would process the requests are themselves uncertain about what the future will bring.

The CPALI project is now listed on the ActionAtlas, a project being produced by the National Geographic Society. It is not yet "live" but you can still see Cay's Blog if you point a browser to http://actionatlas.org and then search for CPALI. Most of the entries on the blog are directed at fifth graders who are being taught by an old friend of Cay's.

Finally, I invite you to view the great video that Sharon Pieczenik made of Erik Patel's work on the endangered silky sifakas. We hope one day to be able to contribute to preserving the habitat of the "angels of the forest".

Links:

• Great Video about Erik Patel's work on the Silky Sifakas

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. Many eggs are hatching everyday. Only 30 cocoons have been produced in Maroantsetra during August, and twice in Denis`rearing.

It`s really important to intercrop the talandoha with a taller plants to shade the talandoha because only the larvae in the shade were survived. in opposite , in April only the larvae in an open area were survived so now we have lots of experiences about the rearing.

In Manaby, most of Denis`s trees were shaded so that allow him to produced more than iMaroantsetra. I`ll inform Jaonary Jean about all of that. When the farmers finish to farm 1000 trees, we must sensibilate them to intercrop the trees with a big plant like casava, banana...

Denis is working on the talandoha farming, so He is getting many seedlings and if it`s continuing like that we will be able to provide seedling to all interested farmers. I`ll visit Denis land on Saturday because he had a small problem in his land, An hydroelectric company has been set up in Ivoloina to provide electricity to all the Analanjirofo region, so the equipments pass over Denis land and he must move his house to another place always in his land. Fortunately our talandoha trees are still there , and no problem for the Cpali project. The advantage for that hydroelectricity is that Manambia may get an electricity and we can move the project to Manambia in the future (but right now , that seems take so long time).

The attached are photos of earrings that CPALI hopes to sell on its website - There are made from comet moth silk. We are making similar earring from suraka silk that we hope will be ready for the Christmas holiday!

Best wishes, Mamy

Beautiful silk spun by comet moth

Earrings made from comet moth silk

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.

After shipping on Friday, I plan to return to Maroantsetra. The team has been gathering and drying seeds for the host plant, Talandoha and one of our farmers has even begun to gather and prepare his own seeds. The more the farmers take over while using our methods the better.

We will be spending the next month continuing seed collection, tending the trees and reviewing sites for future planting.

Finally, the CPALI annual report has just been posted on the CPALI webpage (http://www.cpali.org/2009_Report/CPALI_Annual_Report_2009.pdf) as well as our facebook page, CPALI Madagascar that is open to all. Please visit. Veloma!

Our first shipment

Links:

• http://ww.cpali.org

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. Every morning they collect the eggs and clean all rearing equipments. Now, the main Mario and Bertrand activities are to remove the chrysalid from cocoon and wash the cocoon one by one, dry them, seperate the cocoon according the color. Also we still have a few larvae ready to spin in the house. After my mission to Ambodivoangy, Mario and Bertrand will continue to collect the larvae in the field.

- Another news, Marie Jeanne found 5 Argema cocoons (without chrysalids) in her land. She found those cocoons on the tree. This discovering show us that Argema exist in Maroantsetra, I do not sure if the tree that she found the cocoon is the Argema`s food-plant, so I need the verify that with Denis. Setting up the Argema`s cocoon production maybe possible if we arrive to identify the food-plant and now we are working on that. (Argema mittrei feeds on a mature forest tree and produces silk that can be used for many more purposes than suraka - this is an important advance to the program!).

That`s all the news, thank you very much Veloma

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 CPALI house when they are ready to spin cocoons. The fact that the larvae change color right before spinning makes it easy to know when its time to return home!

We currently have 12 farmers working with in the COBA of Ambodivoangy. Five farmers are already able to begin the transplanting talandoa (larval host plant) they have been tending. Seven more farmers are ready to set-up a new nursery!

During this year, our goals with the farmers are: - Ro help the first five to transplant 1000 trees each on family farmers and in border forest sites ( this is the minimum number of trees need/farmer) - To collect enough seeds in July, August and September for all the new farmers and train the them how to care for the talandoa. This year the farmers will germinate their own seedlings and CPALI will give them the seeds (last year the project team germinated all the seeds and gave farmers small seedlings - a big improvement for us over last year!). This year CPALI must have more than 14,000 good seeds to support the new farmers in Ambodivoangy, and 2000 seedlings to complete the missing seedling stock provided to the first five farmers.) - By the end of 2009, The ultimate goal for the COBA is to have 5000 trees growing in the farmers land and 7000 seedlings in the farmer`s nursery.

Next year, hopefully beginning March 2010, the first five farmers will be able to produce 1kg of cocoons each. It takes one year for one tree to produce enough leaves to feed 5-10 larvae ( this is a new result after our recent rearing experiments in Maroantsetra and Manamby) . The rearing period in Makira begins in March and continues until July.

In Marovovonana, (CPALI's second target COBA) I met 5 farmers also interested in the project but I`m not sure if they are really serious – we will wait and see if they form a cooperative group and contact us.

Tomorrow, I will go to Manamby to assist Denis who has established CPALI's tree nursery and second rearing site.

Thank you for your interest and support!

CPALI garden after rearing

New color for suraka larvae - same species, a new adaptation? W

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, and Sahajinja, 30 kilometers from Maroantsetra. The farmers in Ambodivoaghany, the "CPALI 5" are transplanting host plant seedlings into family gardens. Despite Madagascar's current political difficulties, CPALI is continuing to move ahead.

Denis' nursery

Comet moth cocoons - waiting for the adults to emerge

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 pledging to purchase their cocoons Our manufacturing and distribution partner, Angoworld has designed new products using sample cocoons.

Links:

• Angoworld is making products from CPALI cocoons