Annotations - grasslands restoration

Burberry is working to restore farmlands and promote animal welfare in the country. Almost 4,000 farming families have signed up to improve animal welfare standards and 48 range land managers have been employed to help engage farming families on how to change for the better. School children are also taught about cashmere farming to help encourage the next generation into the industry.

For more than six generations, Italian company Loro Piana, the world’s most revered wool and cashmere brand, has been sourcing the finest fibers from some of the most inhospitable places on Earth to create its famously exquisite fabrics and garments. After decades of buying its raw cashmere fibers directly from selected herdsmen from Inner and Outer Mongolia, in 2009 it launched a sustainable development program, the Loro Piana Method, with universities in Italy, China and Mongolia. This initiative aims to further improve the impeccable quality that Loro Piana’s devoted customers expect of its cashmere, support smaller herds through selective breeding, preserve the ancient and complex craft of harvesting the precious under-fleece, secure a premium price for the herdsmen’s precious fibers, and protect the local ecosystem.

(but not necessarily "improved" breeds?)

Meanwhile, a large mining operation in the region needed biodiversity offsets to comply with performance standards required by its lender, the International Finance Corporation. By partnering across these sectors, Kering could intervene in their supply chain with additional resources from mining offset commitments, to secure a future supply of better quality cashmere while also securing the livelihoods of the herders, improving the local environment, conserving biodiversity and even enhancing the air quality of major cities almost 10,000km apart.