THE International Year of the Natural Fibre could not have been possible if not for one WA man, Brian Moir, and it's his hope that when 2009 ends the relationships that have been built between industries will remain well into the future.
Mr Moir's role in the International Year of the Natural Fibre has been a rather large one as the coordinator behind all the efforts.
However, he has recently retired from his position as a senior economist for the UN in Rome and was thrilled to see his efforts come to fruition in one of the many celebrations around the world at the recent 2009 Smoke Free Perth Royal Show.
Mr Moir said the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation had been discussing the Year of the Natural Fibre for some time and last year his team was given the leadership role to get the program rolling.
"We were not given much funding so we worked closely with different partnerships around the world," Mr Moir said.
"We worked with organisations from each fibre such as the International Wool Textile Organisation, cotton groups, flax groups and so forth."
He said each event was not centrally run but many people were becoming more aware of natural fibres.
"We have had events popping up all around the world," he said.
"It has been very spontaneous, local museums have been running education programs on natural fibres as have schools.
"There have been large conferences celebrating the International Year of the Natural Fibre in Brazil, Philippines, Germany and London."
Mr Moir said all around the world different people had picked up on the theme and were reaching out to the public.
"Some events have been aimed at industry and some have been aimed toward educating people about the benefits behind natural fibres," he said.
"Australian Wool Innovation has been very interested and they celebrated with an event in Sydney recently."
He said the primary aim behind International Year was to raise the profile of natural fibres.
"We wanted to promote innovations within natural fibres," Mr Moir said.
"As the world is becoming more environmentally conscious we wanted to show the public what natural fibres have to offer."
Mr Moir said there had been great interest in Australia generated around celebrating natural fibres.
"Australia Post has even picked up on this idea by creating some stamps to commemorate natural fibres," he said.
Mr Moir said he was impressed with the fashion parade at the 2009 Smoke Free Perth Royal Show.
"The whole sheep pavilion with the fashion show and shearing display was great," he said.
"There were hundreds of people that walked through those doors.
"All it takes is for those people to learn something, it is about reaching out to the public and all over the world things like this are happening.
"Admittedly we are not going to reach out to everyone but what has been done around the globe and what will continue to happen throughout the year has been and will be very successful."
He said when the whole process started in 2005 there had been very little interaction between the natural fibre industries.
"The best thing to come out of this has been that there are now partnerships between industries," he said.
"While the industries compete with one another they are now at the same time working together to promote natural fibres.
"It is my hope that this could be the future.
"That these industries could permanently work together to promote themselves against synthetic and man-made fibres."
Mr Moir said the committees had been set and up and it was now up to them to chose whether or not to work together in the future.
"Now they have met each of their counterparts in all the different natural fibre industries," he said.
"They have been working so well together and I hope it will continue."
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