Nature can provide cost-effective long-term solutions, like vetiver grass, to adapt to #climaterisks. With its net of deep roots, which grow up to a length of 2 meters in the first year, vetiver grass helps address erosion in places where soil can easily be washed away during storms and floods such as slopes, coastal areas exposed to strong waves, river banks and open ditches.
Did you know? Since the 1950s, Fiji has been a leader in environmentally sustainable smallholder sugarcane production, through pioneering innovations such as the use of vetiver grass for soil conservation. More recently, a great deal of practical knowledge has been acquired on the rehabilitation of degraded soils on the Fiji island of Taveuni through the ACIAR Soil Health Project and the work of the farmer organisation Tei Tei Taveuni.
In the coming years, land and forestry planners and managers in the Pacific region will need to work with resource owners, tree growers and farmers to strengthen existing and planned adaptations and develop new interventions to minimise threats and harness opportunities associated with the direct and indirect effects of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems.
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