Wild silk: wild silk enterprise programs to alleviate poverty and protect habitats

Abstract: We propose that earnings from sustainable, small-scale, wild silk enterprises can replace earnings from non-sustainable harvesting of forest resources. In the first section of the chapter we review the macrostructure of wild silks and those factors most likely to affect wild silk economic value. In the second part of the chapter we review four wild silk enterprise projects whose goals are poverty alleviation and biodiversity protection. We compare project effectiveness in terms of numbers of people employed, returns to farmers and potential habitat restoration. Wild silk production, and similar small-scale enterprises, may be a more effective conservation and poverty alleviation tool than payments for ecosystem services (PES) or Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) in developing countries where governments are unstable and people are chronically poor.

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