Stay where the old village used to be
In response to concerns about erosion and sedimentation in our last posting, Don Miller from Vanuatu (South Pacific) shares his experience with vetiver grass: I have been using vetiver grass in the South West Pacific for almost 20 years and can confirm that it is of great value in controlling soil erosion and reducing sedimentation. A substantial amount of work has been done in Vanuatu on the island of Aneityum where extreme soil erosion in deep gullies was leaving thick deposits of red, iron-rich mud on the coral reefs. The work was carried out between 1995 and 2002 and a recent visit allowed me to monitor the long term benefits. The information has been put into a presentation available at http://www.vetiver.org/VAN_REEF/VAN-reef2.htm. It is encouraging that vetiver is also being used in the Rewa Valley (Fiji, South Pacific). Vetiver was a very important component of soil erosion control on the sugar cane lands around Lautoka and Rakiraki from the 1960s until fairly recently. I spent time there in 1990 and was very impressed by the terraces formed by the vetiver grass. It was effective in trapping soil particles that were moving on the cultivated slopes during intense rain and the height of the terraces indicated just how much sediment had been trapped over the previous 25 years. I understand that many of these terraces have since been ploughed out and that soil erosion is once again a problem in those areas.
In another part of the world, flooding is proving to be a major challenge. Kavita Khanna from India (Asia) tells us about the five-square km island of Ghoramara, in the middle of the Bay of Bengal in the Sundarbans wetlands - once an island inhabited by over 40,000 people. Locals tried confronting the rising sea by building bunds (an embankment or dike) only to watch them gradually wash away. Today, with the island losing more than 50% of its landmass due to rising sea levels, only a few thousand brave people reside here. Local fishermen have also borne the brunt of climate change. According to locals, fish which earlier used to throng the sea have now become extremely scarce as their migration and reproduction patterns have changed with the changing climate. Upon entering villages, one can see fishing nets that were once thrown into the sea but are seldom used now. Technical Paper V, Climate Change and Biodiversity, from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that "Globally by the year 2080, about 20% of coastal wetlands could be lost due to sea-level rise". But there is no doubt that the Sunderbans is getting submerged far faster than that rate.
Tetoaiti Tabokai, Kiribati (Central Pacific), provides us with a different perspective on communities that face flooding: I live in Kiribati which is a low lying string of coral atolls. It comes as no surprise that our neighbouring coral atoll state, Tuvalu, is voicing its concern over sea-level rise, because it is a problem. In the case of Kiribati, however, I have observed that most of the stories regarding sea-level rise and its impacts have been exaggerated or have not been given the right explanations. We have rising sea-levels, but it is restricted to areas which were previously uninhabited. New settlements always face problems, as the places they occupy are prone to over-flooding during super high tides. The super high tides are unpredictable, but there is evidence that sea level in general has risen. Interviewing the older folks, their explanation is that this rising sea level is a cycle. Where flooding takes place, it is because 50 years ago that place used to be flooded during high tides. I may not be an expert but I may offer a generalised conclusion: "stay where the old village used to be".
How is local knowledge of climate and weather patterns helping your community?
Write to us at peoples@climatefrontlines.org and share your experiences.
