Vetiver Grass A Thin Green Line Against Erosion (1993) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix A: Great Challenges, Great Opportunities
Appendix A: Great Challenges, Great Opportunities
Pages 94-112
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From page 94... ...
Nonetheless, it is a testimony to the potential inherent in vetiver that a single species could even be considered for such an array of challenging situations. Also, it is a testimony to the potential inherent in their green lines of grass that solutions to so many seemingly intractable problems can even be envisioned.
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From page 95... ...
. The site may have lost all of what scientists call "weathered soil" the upper part that had been exposed to air, rain, heat, cold, plant life, microbes, and the other natural forces that create a friable foundation for vegetation to grow in.
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From page 97... ...
This particular location in rural Australia is not in vetiver's prime geographic zone; however, countless similar scenes can be found throughout the hot regions where vetiver thrives. (Photo: Australian Academy of Science)
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From page 99... ...
In the case shown, rows of vetiver along the contours could be a first step toward reclaiming the unused lower slopes. Such hedges could then make it worth a farmer's time and effort to grow either crops or trees between the rows.
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From page 100... ...
For much of tropical forestry, vetiver should be an ideal adjunct. Here, for instance, the young trees could be easily supported by just a few short vetiver hedges behind and perhaps one in front.
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From page 101... ...
With vetiver, remote watersheds no longer need be left to spew out silt. Governments, utility companies, multinational lending organizations, and others whose interest lies in saving public works from systematic ruin by siltation should test out vetiver rapidly.
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From page 102... ...
Globally speaking, soil loss probably poses a bigger threat than loggers. In an era when trees are increasingly important to the health of the earth, tree protection should be as valued as tree planting.
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From page 103... ...
Parking lots, airfields, driveways, irrigation pipes, bridge abutments, posts, pylons, walls, as well as construction sites are all prime erosion incubators. For these and many others, vetiver could be a cheap and easy answer.
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From page 104... ...
Once that happens the soil loss can be greater than if the slope had been left untouched: the cascading water creates a sort of domino effect that breaches terrace after terrace right down the slope. All in all, physical barriers are inherently unstable in tropical areas where annual rainfall is often measured in thousands of millimeters.
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From page 105... ...
. Under these conditions the terraces decline, the erosion accelerates, and the farm yields decrease.
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From page 106... ...
Water biting into the bottom of banks like these along the Amazon inevitably tumbles soil in. Yet waterside erosion is difficult to overcome—especially in rural Third World sites, where concrete and other engineered structures are impractical.
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From page 107... ...
Rains wash motor oil, tar, animal droppings, and battery fluids from city streets and sluice them down what are known as "storm-water drains." A few cities are experimenting with filtering such chemical cocktails using man-made marshes. New Orleans, for example, aims to cut its storm-water pollution by half this way.
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From page 108... ...
Moreover, it spreads the runoff out, and any excessive flow runs harmlessly over it and down the grass-covered face of a naturally formed terrace. This location in the Colombian highlands should be ideal vetiver country.
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From page 109... ...
may be woven into mats and other products, the shorter ones pile up in huge, unsightly heaps. Sri Lanka, shown above, has an estimated 35 million tons of this so-called "coir dust" lying unused.
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From page 110... ...
right where it is most needed. Even in extremely dry zones like this one near Agades in Niger, moisture deep in the wadi bottom should keep the hedges alive through even the driest seasons.
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From page 111... ...
Assuming vetiver can survive in this dune near Niamey in Niger, hedges along the back side will slow and maybe halt the sand's forward progress. Rows across the face would also help.
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From page 112... ...
This grass, which can be taller than these fronds being planted in Tunisia, might prove to be practical for protecting foot tracks, roads, railways, canals, villages, houses forests, and other facilities from blowing sand. Further, in areas such as West Africa, vetiver's strong but resilient foliage should make an excellent windbreak.
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