Contact us

The Greenvironment © Foundation for Research and Development was launched in November 2003 by Mrs. Sheila Stuart, Director of the Bureau of Gender Affairs of the Ministry of Social Transformation of Barbados.

The objective of the Foundation, which represents the educational arm of the Mulberry Patch pilot project, is to conceptualise and execute outreach and training activities geared towards the growth of the Mulberry Patch.

The Greenvironment © Foundation has been responsible for the development of the Harvest and Autumn Moon Marketplace showcases of the Mulberry Patch, along with several gender-focussed Silk ‘N Teavents. A Joint Cross Sectoral Ministerial Site visit and Brunch hosted the Minister and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Housing and Lands and the Environment along with representatives from the Ministry of Commerce, Consumer Affairs and Business Development, and the National Council for Science and Technology.

The Greenvironment© Foundation also conducted the research project which disclosed the Heritage and Historical aspects of sericulture, an agro-diversity introduced to Barbados during the late 1700’s. A Workshop on the Bombyx Mori Silkworm and an Introduction to Sericulture was also hosted by the Foundation in 2003. The island’s first Virtual Tea Party was also hosted as a fund-raiser by the Foundation to finance the inaugural visit to Zhejiang Agricultural University.

The Greenvironment Foundation has subsequently been mentored by world renowned sericulturalist, Dr. Chen Yu Yin of the Zhejiang Agricultural University Laboratory for Silkworm Breeding and Genetics. This partnership will inform the creation of a dedicated commercial insect bio-habitat in Barbados in the near future. In the interim, it is expected that Didactic Kits which have been donated by Dr. Silvia Cappellozza of the Stazione Sperimentales per la Seta of Italy to the Foundation for the schools of Barbados, to encourage the study of Metamorphosis and Sericulture Development for agricultural applications.

Several students from the Samuel Jackman Prescod PolyTechnic have expressed an interest in the project, and Teen Challenge, a drug rehabilitation project has selected a team of young clients to assist with mulberry plantation. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Control and Prevention has introduced sericulture as an alternative to drug crop production for farmers in South America and the Far East.

The Greenvironment Foundation has also conceptualised and mounted a series of provocative and informative exhibitions at a variety of relevant events, advocating the reintroduction of Sericulture as a Heritage Agro-diversity in Barbados. An accordion Statement of Support, signed by over 100 supporters at such events as GreenExpo, The National Agricultural Conference, SciTech Xpo and AgroFest, has encouraged project enthusiasm and validated the Mulberry Patch Deepvision. A Demo Plot was constructed at Haggatt’s Plantation, St. Andrew which remained in place for over a year, and Foundation research and development helped inform the Pest Risk Analysis conducted on Bombyx Mori by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The Project Facilitator of the Greenvironment Foundation will visit Grenada in the near future, to pay a courtesy call on the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and the Committee for Reconstruction and Development in the coming weeks to introduce Moriculture as a Reforestation Solution and introduce Sericulture as an Empowerment Project for Poverty Alleviation to Rural Grenada.