CPALI is an international NGO dedicated to a community-centered approach to conservation. Protected areas and national parks are important for conserving habitats and ecosystems. But vulnerable people have depended on those same habitats and ecosystems for generations for their livelihood. To address this problem, CPALI focuses on people and strengthens the existing relationship between local people and the environment through the development of sustainable livelihoods. 

 

Our current project is in rural Madagascar near the largest remaining rainforested area in the country. Over 1% of the world’s biodiversity is represented within this region. CPALI works with a network of subsistence farmers to cultivate native resources and secure a market for them. 

 

Farmers working with our project experience the value of conservation directly by producing new products from the land they steward. Farmers living on the borders of the Makira and Masoala Protected Areas who have worked with CPALI and SEPALIM have planted about 30,000 native trees in former clear-cut zones, intercropping them with edible plants. 

 

Native silkworms feed on these trees, and the farmers have raised them to produce silk cocoons. Depending on a variety of circumstances, the farmers release the silkworms back into the wild as adult moths after metamorphosis, or cook the pupae to provide much-needed protein to their families’ diets. Many of the farmers have become “citizen scientists”: some, for example, discovered that edible native mushrooms grew under the new trees and these mushrooms could be sold for cash at market. The farmers have discovered new ways that native flora and fauna can improve their own lives without destroying the rainforest or native animal populations. 

 

CPALI’s unique approach to conservation challenges the idea that conservation and development are fundamentally opposed and works at the grassroots level to develop a mutually beneficial way to maintain a healthy environment.

CPALI works closely with the Malagasy NGO, "Sehatry ny Mpamokatra Landy Ifotony, Madagascar" (Association of Wild Silk Producers) or SEPALI Madagascar. Mamy Ratsimbazafy, CPALI’s local director, founded SEPALI Madagascar in 2009 and manages a staff of 15 workers.  Together, the SEPALI staff maintain a demonstration site and travel to 13 different communities to work with farmers. Artisans are trained at the SEPALI workshop to sew an innovative non-spun textile and to weave raffia (a leaf fiber native to Madadascar). The products are sold through our online market, Ta’na’na.

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Conservation Through Poverty Alleviation International, Inc (CPALI) does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of its activities or operations. These activities include, but are not limited to, the appointment to and termination from its Board of Directors, hiring and firing of staff or contractors, selection of volunteers, selection of vendors, and providing of services.

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CPALI is an equal opportunity employer. We shall not discriminate and will not discriminate in employment, recruitment, Board membership, advertisements for employment, compensation, termination, upgrading, promotions, and other conditions of employment against any employee or job applicant on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, or for any other discriminatory reason.