The foundation has made it its mission to conserve nature in areas where cotton and cashmere are produced. It pursues these goals through its internationally recognised sustainability standards as well as by supporting farming families in optimising their agricultural operations. Its support enables them to improve their living conditions and build up the resilience of their farming to climate change and market fluctuations.

Aid by Trade Foundation launches biodiversity fund

“In view of the global climate and environmental crises, we need to fundamentally rethink our actions and their impact on the environment,” explains Tina Stridde, the managing director of the Aid by Trade Foundation, adding, “Our ‘Aid by Trade’ approach is succeeding in activating trade to create positive effects for nature, people, and animals and to provide essential funding for an issue close to our hearts: the preservation of biodiversity.”

The first project funded by the AbTF Biodiversity Fund will be implemented in collaboration with African People and Wildlife (APW), a renowned organisation for community-oriented nature conservation based in Tanzania. APW has earned international recognition for its efforts in promoting peaceful coexistence between people and endangered wildlife.

The Aid by Trade Principle

The Aid by Trade Foundation has changed the textile and fashion industry worldwide over the past 20 years through its sustainability standards: Cotton made in Africa® (CmiA), Cotton made in Africa Organic, The Good Cashmere Standard® (GCS), and the Regenerative Cotton Standard® (RCS).

In 2005, against the backdrop of the WTO conference in Cancún in 2003, AbTF was founded by the entrepreneur Prof. Dr Michael Otto with three primary aims: making a decisive and measurable contribution to the sustainability of raw-material producers and their communities, improving their working and living conditions, and protecting nature. What began with Cotton made in Africa in three African countries is now a global foundation that maintains four recognised sustainability standards for cotton and cashmere. These standards are opening doors for retailers and brands, raw-material producers, and the textile supply chain, not to mention for consumers. AbTF has always remained true to the principle of activating market forces to provide aid—and this approach is only growing more successful.

“Who, in 2005, would have thought that a global alliance of fashion brands and textile companies would now be demanding raw materials verified according to the standards of the Aid by Trade Foundation?” asks Prof. Dr Michael Otto. “I am thrilled that this is the case today,” he continues, “and I am convinced that the foundation will keep making a significant contribution to sustainable fashion and will lead the way for people and the environment through its new biodiversity fund.”

Success in Trade and in the Field

The Aid by Trade Foundation has been continuously expanding its operations since 2005. Every year, millions of textiles bearing a label of the Hamburg-based Aid by Trade Foundation are sold. More than 3,000 partners in the market are implementing their sustainability goals with AbTF. By partnering with the foundation, they also make a significant contribution to nature conservation, animal welfare, and more dignified working and living conditions in cultivation regions.

AbTF launched its first initiative, CmiA, in 2006 with 100,000 small-scale farmers in three countries in Africa South of the Sahara. Now, in 2025, CmiA works with 22 cotton companies, 65 retailers and brands, and approximately 800,000 small-scale farmers in ten African countries. This means that the standard is verifying over one third of all cotton produced in Africa.

Eventually, two other cotton standards were added: Cotton made in Africa Organic and Regenerative Cotton Standard®. The launch of RCS with its holistic approach also represented AbTF’s first expansion of a cotton standard beyond Africa, to India. The Good Cashmere Standard®, established in 2019 as the first standard for sustainable cashmere from Inner Mongolia, has also proved its effectiveness. Having quickly risen to become a global leader in verifying sustainable cashmere production, GCS is now in demand by more than 50 fashion brands and textile companies, including H&M, J.Crew, Zadig&Voltaire, and The White Company. In China’s Inner Mongolia, GCS works with around 5,500 herders on whose farms 2.4 million goats live.