There are a lot of users and "installers" of the Vetiver System that could and should be technically certified if they could find the time to apply! We are very excited to announce that David Booth M.B.E. Ardika Adinata, and the Indonesia Vetiver Network have been certified at the highest proficiency level "Class 1" having worked with the Vetiver System for more than 20 years! Their submission (7MB) has over 70 slides showing the wide range of applications that encompass agriculture, soil and water conservation, slope stabilization, pollution control, production of high quality plant material, extension, training, and handicrafts. They started using vetiver as an integral part of the East Bali Poverty Project where it reversed declining agriculture production, halted erosion, opened up slopes that previously were uncultivable and degraded, stabilized road and building infrastructure, protected critical water supply spring heads, supplied a source of material for handicrafts, and turned poverty about face! Later they applied vetiver for civil infrastructure stabilization, pollution control linked to the hotel/tourist industry, mine tailing reclamation and clean up, beach properties and land rehabilitation. They set up the Indonesian Vetiver Network and have trained individuals and companies in the Vetiver System. They have also established excellent nurseries that produce high quality plant material. In the last ten years they have supplied over 5 million vetiver plants for projects and clients. Their clients include amongst others: PT RAPP (Indonesia's largest pulp and paper mill), Indonesia Public Works Department, ExxonMobil, Asia Development Bank, PT Adaro Coal Mining Company, PT Meares Soputan (Gold mining company), PT. Sakaimait Jaya Langit Oil Palm Company, and the Oberoi Hotel.
David Booth is the man behind the East Bali Poverty Project that has impacted on 10,000 of the poorest adults and children in Bali. See this slide show. If you want to help this project contact: info@eastbalipovertyproject.org
David,
ReplyDeleteYou never cease to amaze me, you have done a fantastic job with your EBPP and now, single-handedly, getting the vetiver system out to the wider community of Indonesia where it should have been years ago. Indonesia is a perfect example of a tropical country that needs the vetiver system to not only thrive but to survive in the long run.
You have clearly shown that the only way to get a new technology accepted or to have any sustaining effect technically is to be on the spot consistently, pushing, demonstrating, encouraging and training. To do this so successfully in your ‘poverty’ area in Bali has required a degree of devotion that few people have.
Governments and the United ‘Notions’ alphabet agencies, at the cost of billions of dollars, have had nowhere near the impact you have. If they had any honesty, then I fail to understand why they cannot recognise your successes and put some of their wasted funds at your disposal. I have contacted them on numerous occasions, sending them your website and details, but obviously they can’t see where your work would supply the necessary luxuries they need to survive – forget about the poverty angle, they only have conferences on that.
As I have said before, you are the modern equivalent ‘Albert Schweitzer’ of Indonesia, It will take a hell of a long time but eventually the establishment will recognise what you are doing, they will never be able to replicate you, but at least you will have shown them a technology that works where they have failed.
What can I say, you are one in a million,
John.