Exxon-Mobile Plants Vetiver From The East Bali Poverty Project

When I first read about this project a few months ago, I was duly impressed by the quality of work and happy for the visibility that a client like Exxon-Mobile meant for a Vetiver colleague. But this story goes beyond being another Vetiver success story in a remote location that I am unlikely to ever visit. This was the work of the folks at the East Bali Poverty Project (EBPP) in East Java, Indonesia, a mountain community that has made Vetiver both a source of income and its foundation for a better future.

In September 2008, the civil engineering contractor constructing the inland oilfield for Exxon-Mobil in Bojonegoro, East Java, Indonesia, requested that they survey and quote for supplying and planting Vetiver on the slopes of a newly constructed oil platform. The Vetiver was needed to stabilize the slopes of approximately 2 meters of fill, to prevent any erosion from runoff from the 125,000 square meters of concrete platform. The runoff during monsoon rains would otherwise carry a lot of it away.

A total of 34,000 Vetiver slips were required for the 3,000 square meters of slopes, planting Vetiver rows at 80 cm (32 inches) measured down the slopes, and 10 cm (4 inches) plant separation along the contours, to ensure sufficient plants to cope with the enormous runoff. They started planting at the start of the rainy season (end of November 2008). Amazingly, a three-man team completed the planting in five days. The attached “after” photo, taken at beginning of May 2009, shows the fantastic growth and zero erosion of the oil platform side slope five months after the planting.

SUMMARY OF EAST BALI POVERTY PROJECT

The East Bali Poverty Project (EBPP) is a non-profit organization established in 1998 by David J. Booth, a British resident of Bali after an appeal for help by an isolated mountain village, forgotten by time and progress. Surveys in 1998 revealed thousands of people, in 19 isolated hamlets, living in abject poverty - without water, sanitation, roads, schools, health facilities or electricity. By 2009, sustainable community livelihoods opportunities had opened in Vetiver grass sales and dried Vetiver handicrafts.

Today, malnutrition and child mortality are almost eliminated, due to improved access and other facilities that have been enabled by the power of Vetiver grass – the stabilization of roads; the stopping of mountain homes from slipping down the slopes; the establishment of permanent hedges that allow vegetable gardens on steep and sandy farms that could only grow cassava and corn before. With the philosophy of “helping people to help themselves”, the EBPP project delivers both ecological and humanitarian results under conditions most others would have termed impossible. Please visit the EBPP web site for a complete view of this amazing story.