Root for soil erosion

The project focus on climate change & resilience, in particular, to reduce the problem of soil erosion. Due to deforestation and human activities, mountain and rural area in Vietnam has severe issue of soil erosion. Vetiver grass and other local materials will be applied as a cheap and friendly solution for preventing soil erosion. The solution is not only for the public places but also for local people’s land. Local people involved in the activities can learn how to take care of their own land, their surrounding landscape and their nature land with affordable cost. The project also help local people to spread the solution out into their community by growing vetiver seedlings at key local person’s houses as nursery gardens. And local people can solve their own issues in a sustainable way.

Additionally, the project has impact on waste management partially in agriculture production. Local people usually use rice straws as mulch. It is not cheap, especially in mountain area or dry land. Therefore farmers use plastic cover sheets to cover their field to prevent wild grass and reduce water evaporation. Those are a huge plastic waste from agriculture production and usually not get treated well at the end of the production cycle. Vetiver leaves are the site product from the soil erosion prevention model and could be used as mulch to cover the fields.

Mountain and rural area in Vietnam has severe issue of soil erosion because of exploration by human. Deforestation has been occurred so popularily that there is not much nature forest left. Bald hills and moutain lead to the change of water flows along the trails and routes and damaged by erosion. Tourism could create the trails. Transportation trucks and motobikes could carve the routes. Forest can heal itself if people let it rest for a while. However, people always seek ways to maintain and expand their business. A sustainable business is the best way to remain and restore the landscape.

A cheap and scalable solution for preventing soil erosion is the aim of this project. Vetiver grass is the main material to apply for the soil erosion prevention model. There are also other local species based on their available and suitable features to combine with vetiver grass to reduce the cost of the application. Vetiver grass has a intense vitality and demands very little care when it gets stable status. Moreover, it cannot spread over and destroy the local ecology. Local people involved in the project can learn how to reproduce it and apply to solve their land’s problem with affordable cost. The project also help local people to spread the solution out into their community by growing vetiver seedlings at key local person’s houses as nursery gardens. And local people can solve their own issues in a sustainable way.

Ninh Thuan is a province who has the least rainfall in Vietnam. However, climate change makes things change. In November 2020, La Nina made a hit to Ninh Thuan with a huge rainfall. And Ninh Thuan people do not have any backup activity to that. In future, climate change can make the unnormal weather come more regularly and out of expectation. Ninh Thuan with long coast near steep mountainous area while soil has most portion of sandy soild. Those features make Ninh Thuan a weak spot for soil erosion. Therefore, the project is essential for Ninh Thuan at present and in future.

Long Ho Town is a rapid developing Town in Western Vietnam. This bring many benefits to local people and inconveniences too. In particular, many roads were opened and built to connect villages together. However, the design for preventing soil erosion along both sides of the roads is not paid attention to. Especially, many roads are long the river or canal without any embankment to hold the land up. Climate change make the water level up and make Western Vietnam become the low and vulnerable land in front of flood and erosion. Many tiny densely roads and canals are at the high risk of landslide. The project will contribute for a affordable solution.

Root have implemented a project of soil erosion prevention named Root for Tiger Slope in Ta Nang forest at the boundary of Lam Dong and Binh Thuan province. This project received much attention from the public, especially the community of hiking and trekking tourists. It was reported on HTV7 ad HTV9, the official television channel of Ho Chi Minh City.