Opportunities for STELARR engaging in cashmere, vicuna and mohair value chains: Recommendations for private sector rangeland investments

Baker, D. 2025. Opportunities for STELARR engaging in cashmere, vicuna and mohair value chains: Recommendations for private sector rangeland investments. Nairobi, Kenya: ILRI.

STELARR seeks to mobilize private investment in rangeland restoration, which will help fill the significant funding gap represented by land degradation on a global scale. Private investment is sought from firms owning luxury brands whose products source materials from the rangelands. This report builds on previous STELARR work, which identified candidate value chains and brands, and reviewed knowledge on sustainable fashion and similar juxtapositions of environment, poverty, and luxury. Information systems are at the heart of brands’ product differentiation but also provide the connection to sustainable use of rangelands and indicators of progress in rangeland restoration. STELARR employs standards and supporting information systems by way of a data platform, to achieve this information flow. The study adopts a modern approach to financing of biodiversity and land restoration by blended finance, which includes elements balancing or offsetting risk and return to the investor. Partner roles are nominated here as particularly important in blended financing for projects, particularly because this provides partners with an income stream from additional investment, which effectively rewards de-risking action. Aspects of return and risk also inform the choice of indicators for the data platform, which would be designed in consultation with investors and partners. The study outlines the likely uses and users of the data platform and provides guidelines on indicator choice, administrative and governance issues, and likely requirements for interoperability of data. This report provides an update on the context of STELARR’s interventions: luxury markets and consumers, partners, stakeholders, and value chains. STELARR’s Unique Selling Proposition within that context is outlined, and partners are recommended for each of the three luxury fibre value chains. Investment design and stakeholder roles are also recommended, and next steps provided.