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Update from the field

4 July 2010

Dear Friends

Today is my last day in Madagascar.   For some reason this trip seems to have been very long even though only 4 weeks.  But we did get a lot done - we now have over 3 square meters of textile that looks great.

Tom Corcoran is making a fantastic video - we think the story line is going to be perceptions of Makira people of conservation - when Tom interviewed the president of the TMA – the farmers association that was set up WCS to manage the border forests edging the Makira Area -Tom asked the president to define conservation/biodiversity - The President replied  “it means setting up an NGO” –

an indication that we all have some educating to do!

We have decided to limit our scale-up to 60 farmers since our staff is so small. Everyone seems comfortable with this.  Mamy is now organizing our farmer networks - 1 lead farmer for 9 farmers - the lead farmer will TAKE DATA which I am thrilled about, will serve as a local advisor to those he/she oversees - the leader will also make our communication easier.  Hopefully with the new solar powered, crank radios available, we can stay in better touch.   

We are working on setting up a board for the new SEPALI.  Everyone is very excited about it.  Our first new board member will be a Malagasy PhD student from UC Berkeley, Tendro (his last name to be revealed in the future).  He is working with farmers in the area doing land mapping and assessment.  He is taking baseline data to which we will be able 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" . . .  except for the name tags of Mercedes and Flower - and yes they came from  industrial garment factories in China.  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