Environment — Ethnic Supplies

The forest would be saved if..

April 3, 2010 By idahorner 1 Comment

the community around it were able to link income generation and its preservation. This is the conclusion Rosemary Wallin yesterday when she dropped in for lunch.

Rosemary is getting ready for her PHd and her research into “luxury and handicrafts” led her to my website. She got in touch and I told her about my challenge of helping the women to come up with jewellery designs that are suitable for the British market
. Rosemary agreed to get involved and yesterday she travelled down from London for a meeting with me.

We spoke at length about the project and the materials the women use, in particular the sustainability of textile. We looked at African textiles BARK CLOTH and WILD SILK

As we spoke it dawned on us that the survival of both these textiles will depend on trees or a forest in the case of wild silk, unless the ancient forest of Madagascar are conserved it will not be possible to harvest the wild silk from those forest. We concluded if the community continue to earn an income from the silk they collect it will be in their interest to conserve these ancient forests our challenge therefore is to enable the community to bring their silk products to the market.

On the other hand in order to harvest bark cloth you need to protect the MUTUBA tree and in fact plant more and more of this type of tree. The harvesting process involves peeling off the bark and if you need to harvest again in future then you have to “nurse” the tree to ensure that it can produce the bark cloth again.You cannot cut down the tree!

If you are a regular here you may recall my conversation with a coffee grower in Uganda who was asked to give up his land for Pine tree planting. Could it be that the government is focusing on the wrong type of tree and that they would be better of encouraging the growing of the MUTUBA tree?

Could Rosemary consider sustainable textiles as part of her PHD, and perhaps work out a way the bark cloth for instance could be brought into mainstream use? This is a challenge she went away with amongst other things.

Can you help these communities conserve these ancient forests? A good start would be to order one of our wild silk scarves!

We considered too how much interest there is amongst the general population there is in learning about the process involved in producing what they wear today. Would people be willing to pay more for a product that helps protect/conserve an ancient forest?

Filed Under: Environment, Ethical Fashion Tagged With: Africa, african textile, bark cloth, forests, Mutuba tree, Rosemary Wallin, silk scarves, sustainalbe fashion, Tree conservation, tree huggers, wild silk

Is Wild Silk Africa’s best kept secret?

December 6, 2009 By ethnicsupplies 4 Comments

When I tell people that Ethnic Supplies stocks fashion accessories made from wild silk one of the questions I get asked without fail is that

Is there enough for commercial purposes?

And the answer yes there is, in Madagascar. The best part is that there is a whole conservation project underway to protect Madagascar’s natural heritage.

Tapia, or Uapaca Bojeri, is the staple food of the wild Malagasy silkworm, called Landibe (borocera madagascariensis). Both tapia and landibe are only found in Madagascar.

The tapia forests are the last remnants of highland primary forest, which are threatened by human destruction through bush fires, firewood collection and charcoal production. The tapia forest is home to a great wealth of products in addition to silkworms, used by the local population; including fruit, medicinal plants, mushrooms and plant dyes.

As the community depends on this forest heavily a project was started to conserve the forests but also ensure that the communities do not lose their way of life

Ny Tanintsika’s project was set up to revitalize the silk industry in the Amoron’i Mania, south central region of Madagascar with the aim of increasing wild silk production while conserving the tapia forests. The projects benefits the poorest within the community especially the women who are involved in silk product.

The village artisans are supported through all the stages of silk production and its transformation into different products, right through to marketing support and sales and a annual target to replant the tapia is set for each village

In the next thread I will tell you about the significance of silk in Malagasy life

Filed Under: Environment, Ethical Fashion, Sustainable development Tagged With: silkworms

I would like to get fat on good quality food

November 1, 2009 By ethnicsupplies Leave a Comment

including meat, this was a statement made by Ken Clarke on BBC Radio 4′s ANY QUESTIONS dated 30/10/09 Listen at 40 minutes.

A question was put to the panel by a member of the audience as a result of Lord Stern’s report regarding climate change The Times has quoted Lord Stern as advocating for a vegetarian diet due to the level of carbon is produced during the production of meat, as well as the amount of water that goes into meat production. This issue was raised as part of George Alagiah’s programme the FUTURE OF FOOD .

According to Ken Clarke it is right to think about climate change and make adjustments elsewhere but not by meat reduction nor become a vegetarian. Like Ken Clarke I am unlikely to become vegetarian but have reduced my meat in take due to fears of high cholesterol a point raised by the Spanish MEP on the panel.

That said I could not help but wonder, whether Ken Clarke had somewhat been flippant in his response! Is it double standards on my part since I eat meat too? Perhaps! I felt that he could have chosen better examples of steps he takes in his daily life to address climate change as someone in public life and certainly his opening remark (the heading of this blog) will not endear him to tree huggers.

Incidentally when I listened to the programme that followed ANY ANSWERS, it transpired that I was not alone in my views that Ken Clarke had been flippant in his remarks. We do have a dilemma on our hand though. As humans we were never meant to be purely vegetarians, so what do we do about climate change as an effect of our meat eating?

What about the food crisis elsewhere? Should we be cutting down whole forests in order to provide animal feeds whilst folk elsewhere in the world are dying of hunger?

What do you think?

Filed Under: Environment, Policy Tagged With: Any Answers, Any Questions, BBC Radio 4, Climate change, GEORGE ALAGIAH, Ken Clarke, Lord Stern