A Great Challenges, Great Opportunities

This appendix highlights some environmental horrors and points to the role vetiver might play in alleviating them. The examples are presented to stimulate exploratory trials in those parts of the world where such devastating problems exist. Whether vetiver will work in sites like these is far from certain. In some, the plant will meet its greatest difficulties in just surviving. In a few, it may survive but fail to be effective. Nonetheless, it is a testimony to the potential inherent in vetiver that a single species could even be considered for such an array of challenging situations. Also, it is a testimony to the potential inherent in their green lines of grass that solutions to so many seemingly intractable problems can even be envisioned. Where vetiver fails, alternative species that make dense hedges should be sought.