CPALI Home

Meet Mamy and Visit CPALI House to learn how silk worm larvae are raised.

Kris Norvig

I. Relanson

CPALI is generously supported by over 500 generous donations on Global Giving in addition to in kind, or grant support from:

PROJECT CONTACT:

Catherine L. Craig, PhD

221 Lincoln Road

Lincoln, MA 01773

CCraig at CPALI dot Org

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AAA-newsletter 2010.pdf

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Current time in Madagascar

The Barclay Family

I. Relanson

Kris Norvig

M. Ratsimbazafy

MONEY FOR MADAGASCAR

“Breakfast comes before conservation", guides our enterprise-based approach to help farmers adversely affected by the formation of the Makira Protected Area in northeastern Madagascar. Drawing on our learnings in biology, ecology, sociology and marketing, we have introduced innovative practices for the sustainable production of wild silk: innovations that both improve the surrounding ecology and satisfy the demands of the subsistence farming that is the only reliable source of food in the remote villages that border the park. We attribute our success ( 50% compound growth in number of participants over the past 5 years) to our reliance on social capital, generated from mutual trust, local governance and from rewarding performance not just participation. Specific innovations include the use of farmer networks and the distribution of a monthly newsletter (in two languages) to disseminate best practices and triumphs, commissioning of locally produced baskets for collecting and rearing the caterpillars, implementation of farmer-suggested competitions, our “cocoon bank” that serves as a saving mechanism and, most recently, a farmer-suggested purchasing cooperative to moderate price fluctuations in school supplies. We guarantee a market for the wild silk and have devised innovative products and manufacturing techniques suited to the immediately available level of skill and infrastructure.