Vetiver has had great success in aiding vulnerability reduction by helping to stabilise slopes, which can mitigate landslides and flooding events. Photo via Canva Pro.

Students from Vessigny Secondary School in coastal south Trinidad recently planted 42 feet (13 metres) of vetiver grass and 30 fruit trees on the school compound in an effort to boost climate resilience.

The long, sturdy roots of the vetiver plant — which can penetrate as much as 10 feet (three metres) into the ground — offer one of the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly solutions to mitigate some of the negative impacts of the climate crisis, with which small island developing states (SIDS) like the Caribbean have been struggling.

The grass (scientific name chrysopogon zizanioides) is perfectly suited to the hot Caribbean climate and has performed admirably when it comes to slope stabilisation, erosion control, and even rehabilitating soil that may have been contaminated by environmental pollutants. It is also able to withstand both drought and flooding, which makes it a uniquely hardy option for helping to reduce the ill effects of climate change, especially with regard to flooding and landslides.

Implemented with the help of environmental non-governmental organisation (NGO) IAMovement and the sustainability-focused Advisors Next Door, the planting initiative was part of the Inspire2Achieve (I2A) programme, introduced two years ago by the state-owned National Gas Company (NGC) to explore the ways in which sustainable practices can help protect and preserve the natural environment on a community level.

Thus far, the work has concentrated on rural areas that NGC considers its “fence line communities,” where part of the focus is to engage young people in discussions about topics that include sustainability, entrepreneurship and technology. Students were taught about proper planting methods since rural communities all across the country, especially those that are also close to the coast, like Vessigny, tend to be more vulnerable to the ill effects of the climate crisis, and during extreme weather events, those communities need to know how to respond.

According to the 2019 Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment of Trinidad and Tobago, areas like Vessigny are classified as high-risk for events like landslides — all the more reason why IAMovement’s Managing Director Kevan Kalapnath-Maharaj said he felt the initiative was important in empowering young people “with the knowledge and tools they need to combat climate change and restore ecosystems.”

Kacey Brown, a student who took part in the effort, added, “Today’s event gave us insight into environmental conservation, climate mitigation strategies, climate adaptation and even the business aspects of these topics.” The initiative, students believed, was successful at “encouraging us to make the change and inform others of what we have learnt so that one day we can achieve a disaster-free future.”

October 13, the day after the students completed the vetiver and tree planting, was the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction. Its 2024 theme, “Empowering the next generation for a resilient future,” was quite fitting, considering that the new vegetation will not only reduce the likelihood of landslips but also help stem the release of carbon dioxide, one of the main greenhouse gases driving the current crisis.

Much like Guyana, the Caribbean's newly minted oil producer, hopes to have its cake and eat it too by being a low-carbon fossil fuel supplier, NGC has been making a point of sustainability initiatives. The company appears intent on finding ways in which sustainability can co-exist with energy exploration and production. In the company's 2022 Sustainability Report, then president of the organisation, Mark Loquan, called it “the energy trilemma — the need to balance competing priorities of energy security, affordability, and sustainability.”

Other energy companies operating in Trinidad and Tobago have also been identifying the environment as part of their corporate social responsibility campaigns. Under its own sustainability banner, for example, the multinational Atlantic LNG has facilitated an environmental education series. Working in partnership with the Fondes Amandes Community Reforestation Project (FACRP), this structured intervention takes primary school children on field trips, where they gain hands-on knowledge about the critical need to conserve and protect our environment. From a young age, therefore, they have an appreciation of the impact of climate change and its effects, including how forest fires affect biodiversity, and how vetiver helps to bind and strengthen soil, preventing slippage and flooding.

John Stollmeyer, a Trinidadian environmentalist who was involved in the early stages of the Atlantic/FARCP project, told Global Voices that the work being done via the initiative is worthwhile and important, and that the FACRP is able to do a lot for the community with the corporate support that it gets. At the same time, though, he says that at the current rate at which the earth's finite material resources are being extracted, programmes like these are not enough to change the looming outcome of the climate crisis. Six out of nine planetary boundaries have already been crossed, Stollmeyer says, and “the faster we stop this extraction — including the mining of fossil fuels — the better our chances of not going extinct.”

As vulnerable regions like the Caribbean cope with the worsening effects of the climate catastrophe, it remains to be seen whether this attempted balance of “the energy trilemma” can be effectively struck. While economic diversification away from Trinidad and Tobago's longstanding oil and gas economy has long been promised, alternative approaches have been slow in coming.

For its part, NGC views the programme as a collaborative, education-based way to drive nature-based solutions that support Trinidad and Tobago’s environmental and disaster preparedness goals. Acknowledging that “immediate action is essential in the fight against climate change,” Sustainability Manager Mario Singh noted that it “unites young leaders to contribute to meaningful solutions, utilising tools like nature-based approaches to drive positive climate impact.”

Perhaps if the global movement away from fossil fuels could be arrived at more quickly, and forums like the UN Climate Change Conference (most recently COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan) would pay greater heed to the suggestions of regional leaders like Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley and “recognise that we are in the midst of a Climate Crisis, hurtling towards catastrophe unless we act now,” these acts would have a larger impact.