Woolly thinking: once reserved as exotic luxuries for the aristocracy, cashmere garments are now manufactured for high-street retailers as fashionable and affordable clothes for the masses. But what effect is increasing demand for this fine material having on the regions in which it's produced?

Geographical, Jan, 2009 by Victoria Lambert

WE COULD BLAME NAPOLEON. It was the French emperor who kickstarted the fashion for cashmere when he legendarily gave the empress Eugenie 17 scarves made of wool so fine they could each be passed through her wedding ring. But even in the late 18th century, cashmere--named after the weavers in Kashmir who handled it--was still a rare and luxurious item.

Since then, while retaining that stamp of nobility, it has, in truth, become a little more common. Ever since EU tariffs were relaxed in 2005, it seems as if every shop on the high street offers a version of cheaper cashmere in its winter ranges--both as clothing and 'homewears'.

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And while there's no reason why the sans-culottes shouldn't enjoy a super-soft pillow or pullover--last December, Marks & Spencer sold two cashmere jumpers every minute and Tesco sold three times as much cashmere in 2006 as it did the year before--this democratisation of cashmere has led to fears of environmental problems on a global scale, not to mention worrying living conditions for those who farm the wool and an even shorter and less pleasant lifespan for the animals that are its source: the goats.

ACTING THE GOAT

The domestic goat (Capra hircus) is found all over the world, but is most likely descended from the wild goat (C. aegagrus), which is originally from Central Asia. To survive in the often harsh environment in which they evolved, goats developed a coat that consists of a thick, coarse outer layer of 'guard' hair--which isn't suitable for spinning--and a fine inner layer, used for insulation. This fine hair can be collected after the animal moults in spring. The thick guard hairs are separated out, leaving behind the cashmere fibres.

The goats that produce commercial quantities of cashmere are mostly found in Asia. China is responsible for more than 70 per cent of the 15,000 tonnes of cashmere produced worldwide each year (the rest is mainly produced in Iran, India and Afghanistan). It takes the hair from up to six goats to produce enough cashmere to make one jumper.

Naturally, as world demand for cashmere has risen, the number of goats being herded has increased exponentially. According to a 2006 report in the Seattle Times, across Inner Mongolia, the number of goats has increased tenfold from 2.4 million in 1949 to 25.8 million in 2004.

Although Chinese officials have played down the threat, many believe that this increase in fanning is causing a corresponding increase in desertification. Goats are expert foragers, consuming more than ten per cent of their body weight a day. They graze the grass down to very low levels, often very close to the roots, reducing its ability to regrow. They are also very unfussy eaters, browsing on shrubs and stripping the bark from trees, often killing them in the process.

This overgrazing--combined with the damage caused by the animals' sharp hooves--is leaving little vegetation to prevent the soil being blown away by the region's fierce winds and turning the world's third-largest grasslands into desert. Between 1994 and 1999, the Gobi Desert expanded by an area larger than the Netherlands, according to the UN Environment Program.

'Desertification has become a bottleneck for social and economic development and the improvement of people's living standard in some areas,' Jiang Chunyun, vice premier of China's State Council, declared at a 1997 UN conference on desertification.

It's also leading to an increase in the incidence of dust storms in many areas of China. According to Professor Gaoming Jiang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China has been hit by almost 70 sandstorms during the past century, with an average frequency of one every three years during the 1940s, increasing to one every two years by the 1960s. By the 1990s, the sandstorms in northern China were taking place several times a year, increasing further to 18 in 2001. With the industrial boom, these storms are becoming more dangerous, collecting particles of pollution released from factories and then descending on major cities such as Beijing, where they have a devastating effect on air quality.

And there are international consequences, too. The USA has reported clouds of dust and pollution reaching its shores, with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warning that 'we are all downwind of someone else's pollution'. One storm was tracked by oceanographers as it crossed the Pacific, made its way across the continental USA--reducing visibility in Colorado to the point where it made the evening news--and then finally petered out in the Canary Islands.

The increasing erosion is also leading to the deposition of silt into the headwaters of rivers that flow into India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Southeast Asia.

FROM FARM TO FASHION

Back in Inner Mongolia, the farmers who traditionally worked the land now find themselves in competition with migrants attracted to the area by the booming cashmere industry. (Many of these migrants are also moving into timber-related industries, which has increased deforestation, leading, in turn, to more desertification.)