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Our vision is a world in which people and nature thrive on community lands that are critical for biodiversity conservation by connecting fair and sustainably-produced resources to local and global markets.

 

About CPALI and our Local Sister Team

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The United States-based Conservation through Poverty Alleviation International (CPALI) team works in partnership with Sehatry ny Mpamokatra Landy Ifotony (Association of Wild Silk Producers) (SEPALI Madagascar). SEPALI Madagascar is a registered Malagasy non-governmental organization established in 2009 and run by an exclusively local staff.

 

CPALI provides technical, financial, and scientific support, and creates market opportunities for nature-based textiles crafted by local artisans through the SEPALI Madagascar local program. SEPALI Madagascar currently has a staff of 18 managers and artisans. Together, they maintain a demonstration site and travel to 13 rural communities to work with farmers. Artisans are trained at the central SEPALI Madagascar workshop to sew an innovative non-spun textile from sustainably harvested cocoons of native wild silk moths and weave raffia, a leaf fiber that is native to Madagascar.

 

In 2020, CPALI established an online presence for the collaborative brand, Tanana Madagascar. Under this brand, CPALI markets wild silk and raffia products to global audiences. 100% of proceeds from the sale of these products supports local artisan and farmer initiatives. Tanana Madagascar products are proudly Fair Trade and Certified Wildlife Friendly. Together with generous donations to CPALI's programs, the sale of these products helps advance conservation and poverty alleviation in underserved communities in this critical biodiversity hotspot.

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Our Initiatives

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CPALI's current collaborative initiatives engage communities bordering the largest remaining intact rainforest on the island of Madagascar. Over 1% of the world’s biodiversity is represented within this region. CPALI works through a network of subsistence farmers to cultivate native resources such as wild silk and raffia, and secure a market for them. 

 

Farmers involved with CPALI experience the value of conservation directly by producing new products from the land that they steward. The 400 farmers engaged in our program live along the borders of Makira Natural Park and Masoala National Park and have planted over 38,000 native trees in former clear-cut areas, intercropping them with edible plants in multi-use agroforestry systems. 

 

Native silkworms feed on these trees and farmers have raised them to produce raw silk cocoons for supplemental income. Collected silkworms are released back into the wild as adult moths after metamorphosis. Many of our farmers have become “citizen scientists”. Some have discovered that edible native mushrooms grow under silkworm host trees and these mushrooms can be sold at market. Others have found that one silkworm host tree serves well as a support for vanilla orchids that are a valuable cash crop in the region.

 

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.

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