 |
"Young Robo" of Papua New Guinea,
in front of his father's Vetiver nursery. |
The worldwide Vetiver family had another good year in
2013. It was exciting to see expanding
use of Vetiver System applications in most parts of the world, often from
people and places that we rarely hear from.
The year’s highlight was The Second International Latin
American Conference on the Vetiver System that was held in October in Medellin,
Colombia, and very ably organized by Daniel Londono of the Colombian Vetiver
Network.
There was excellent attendance
and some very interesting
presentations
from most of the region’s countries covering various applications. It was
interesting to see how individuals, communities, private companies, schools,
and Universities were all making their contribution to furthering this great
technology.
I was personally moved by
the work of Alois Kennerknecht of Lima, Peru, who, using his own money, had
virtually single handed introduced VS for
beautification,
soil conservation, and other purposes to some very poor inner city urban
communities.
In Madagascar, our current
“Vetiver Champion”, Yoann Coppin, continues his excellent work with a number of
cross
sector applications that show what can be done when you put your mind to
it!
We thank the companies and
individuals who contributed to the conference in kind and funds.
In late November we learned that Paul Truong had been shortlisted
in the final 25 contenders for the St Andrew’s Prize – an important UK
environmental prize.
His submission was
based on his pioneering work on phytoremediation of wastewater and its
potential for reducing diseases transmitted in dirty water.
We will know whether he is a winner or not in
May 2014.
Water quality is an important
area where VS can prove helpful. For example we recently learned that
TechnoServe has a project in East Africa that addresses the coffee industry,
including training over 120,000 Ethiopian coffee farmers in VS technology and
using the VS application, that we are now calling,
Vetiver
Phytoremediation Technology (VPT), to treat wastewater from coffee pulping
stations.
We would like to congratulate TVNI Director, Roley Noffke of
Hydromulch, South Africa, for being elected as Vice President of the
International Erosion Control Association (IECA) with global responsibilities
outside of the US. Roley has been a great supporter of the Vetiver System; has
helped fund a number of vetiver programs and vetiver training courses; has
carried some
large mine
rehabilitation and slope
stabilization works in Africa using VS; and has shown how poor local
communities can significantly improve their incomes through inclusion in the production
and supply of large quantities of
quality
vetiver plant material.
His example is
laudable and should be an example to many other commercial operations that use
VS.
Our website continues to be very well used. It is
interesting to see the growing interest from countries such as the Philippines,
Italy, Brazil, Myanmar amongst others.
I
have been busy updating the website (something I should have done a long time
ago), and have now nearly completed an additional
Vetiver
System Library that is in the public domain and hopefully proves easier to
find vetiver information and documents. You can still use the website search
engine and the Vetiver Archives – they are all interlinked.
Sadly in the past year we have lost two of our longstanding
Board members and friends.
Monty
Yudelman who died in January 2013 was well know in international circles,
having been at one time the World Bank’s Director of Agriculture and Rural
Development where he oversaw a massive increase in Bank agricultural lending to
impoverished farmers. Then this last November Mark Dafforn, our Secretary and
Director, died suddenly at far too young an age. He will be remembered particularly
for his work the National Academy of Science’s 1993 study – “Vetiver Grass – A
Thin Green Line Against Erosion” and his work with Robert Adams on the DNA of
Vetiver, as well as for the good scientific advice that he gave us all.
We are setting up two awards in their
names
-
“The Monty Yudelman Award” and “The Mark Dafforn Award”.
Details will posted shortly about the awards,
but both will be open to people undertaking outstanding contributions to the
Research and/or Development of the Vetiver System. The Yudelman Award already
stands at $5,000 and The Dafforn Award is at $1500.
If anyone would like to contribute you can do
so either via our "
Donate" button on our website or by mailing in a check or
money order.
The Vetiver System continues to attract a good deal of
attention, and is particularly important for addressing Climate Change and Food
Security issues. I firmly believe that
VS is one of the most important tools for mitigating and preventing many of the
land and water related environmental activities that are needed if this planet
is to be a better place. We have a long
way to go, and a lot of hard work remains particularly in information transfer
and application. The three major legs of the Vetiver System: infrastructural
slope stabilization, on farm soil and water conservation (erosion control), and
treatment of contaminated land and water (phytoremediation) remain the
keystones of the technology; together they address the critical areas mentioned
above.
For those of you who may share this letter with your friends
and interested clients you might care to read up on the history and
achievements of TVNI and the Vetiver System in
this document
that I recently prepared.
The next big vetiver event will be the
6th International Conference on
Vetiver (ICV6) to be held in Da Nang, Vietnam in May 2015.
Its theme will be “Vetiver System: Empowering
Sustainable Development”.
It should be a
very good and informative gathering, and is being ably organized by
Man Tran, Vietnam Vetiver
Coordinator.
Mark up your diaries and
join us in Da Nang.
Finally at this season of “Giving”, I would like to tell you
that in the past few days we have had some generous responses to our request
for funds to support the ongoing work of the Vetiver Network.
Thus far we have collected nearly $4,000.
We
need more, and I would ask those of you who have not yet made a
contribution and who care about our planet, the solutions and opportunities
that VS can provide, and the personal/business benefits that many of you have
derived through the Vetiver Network to consider a tax deductible donation –
easy to make via the secure
“Donate” button on our website.
Thank you all for a good year, and Greetings!
Dick Grimshaw
