Author: Jim Smyle

Newsletter (NL2026-03) – Mapping the Vetiver System Worldwide, Vetiver México’s ‘Vetiver for the Earth’ Competition, Paseo Ambiental Orégano (Venezuela) Celebrates 5th Anniversary, Farmer innovation/Solomon Islands, Community-first vetiver model for landslide-prone hillsides, Slope stabilization and carbon capture

Mapping the Vetiver System Worldwide: A New Country-by-Country Evidence Table TVNI has compiled a comprehensive country-by-country evidence table documenting the global reach of the Vetiver System. The table currently covers 120 countries and territories — each assessed across six evidence categories:…

Jim Smyle
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Labels: agriculture, climate change, climate change adaptation, community, design standards, disaster mitigation, erosion, Establishment, infrastructure, land restoration, Promotion & Dissemination, slope stabilization, upscaling vetiver, Vetiver research, waterTagged , , , , , , , ,

Newsletter (NL2026-02) — A belated February newsletter & Global Water Bankruptcy, Patricia Tello Reátegui, Potential Funding Opportunities for VS Practitioners, VS Academic Visibility, Slope steepness & rooting, and others….

Our February Newsletter is coming out quite late for technical reasons: we have just migrated the TVNI website from its long time host, CSS Communications (of Bellingham, Washington) to a new host and so were “down” during the transfer.  As…

Jim Smyle
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Labels: design standards, erosion, Establishment, Hydrology, land restoration, management, Phytoremediation, slope stabilization, Vetiver research, wastewater, water, water qualityTagged , , , , , , , ,

A new technical reference and guide for slope stabilization from Dr. Mohammad Shariful Islam

The Vetiver Network International is pleased to present this new technical reference and guide: Standard Specification for Slope Stabilization Using Vetiver Grass. Authored by Dr. Mohammad Shariful Islam, a distinguished researcher and practitioner in the field of bioengineering, Dr. Islam’s…

Jim Smyle
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Labels: infrastructure, slope stabilization, Vetiver technical publicationsTagged , , , , , ,

Newsletter (NL 2025-12) – a year in review & other news

The Vetiver System in 2025 The most outstanding aspect of the Vetiver System in 2025 were the people of the VS global community.  WhatsApp groups in India and Latin America, the monthly Latin American Conversatorios, and numerous active Facebook groups…

Jim Smyle
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Labels: agriculture, community, infrastructure, Network News, Phytoremediation, Promotion & Dissemination, slope stabilization, upscaling vetiver, Vetiver researchTagged , , , , , , , , ,

Newsletter (NL 2025-10) WhatsApp to Watersheds: Peru Testimonial, Innovations, Impacts, and Economics, and WhatsApp Chat Insights

A testimonial from Alois Kennerknecht : The Vetiver System – a multipurpose plant in an urban community in Peru A few months ago TVNI launched a “Vetiver Testimonial Campaign” with an open call, asking you to share your stories and…

Jim Smyle
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Labels: agriculture, benefit/cost, economics, erosion, management, Phytoremediation, policy, Promotion & Dissemination, slope stabilization, upscaling vetiver, Vetiver research, Vetiver Videos, water quality, watershed managementTagged , , , , , , ,

Newsletter (NL 2025-08) A Look at AI’s Potential for Vetiver Promotion, Welcome to TVNI’s New Technical Directors, A Large-scale Ecological Remediation Project in China, Recent News/Research

Can AI help accelerate the scaling and uptake of the Vetiver System? As we are all aware, communities across the Global South are experiencing the accelerating impacts of climate change — soil erosion, flooding, drought, and degraded farmland. For hundreds…

Jim Smyle
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Labels: agriculture, climate change, climate change adaptation, community, erosion, Network News, Promotion & Dissemination, slope stabilization, uncategorized, upscaling vetiver, Vetiver researchTagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Newsletter (NL 2025-06) — Vetiver & citrus greening: attention researchers; A meta review of VGT slope stabilization; Vetiver roots tensile strength; Women farmers, tenure security and Vetiver; Regional Conference in India

In this Newsletter, among others, we present some interesting observations and research findings that underscore the importance of further research for deepening and expanding our understanding of how the Vetiver System can contribute to a climate-resilient, sustainable future. The first…

Jim Smyle
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Labels: agriculture, climate change, climate change adaptation, climate change mitigation, community, Conference, erosion, slope stabilization, upscaling vetiver, Vetiver researchTagged , , , , , , , ,

Newsletter (NL 2025-05) – Common threads through successful Vetiver applications are motivated individuals and communities/ VGT showcased at a premier international conference for geosciences

Note: due to a recent issue with the TVNI website, the May Newsletter was “lost” and will need to be redone. Until then, this is a placeholder only.

Jim Smyle
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Labels: agriculture, climate change, climate change adaptation, community, disaster mitigation, erosion, forage, infrastructure, Promotion & Dissemination, slope stabilization, upscaling vetiverTagged , , , , , ,

Newsletter – Slope Stabilization Standards, VS Training Opportunities, India & Latin America WhatsApp Groups, Monthly Latin American Roundtable Summaries, A Possible Pan-American Conference in 2025 (NL 2025-02)

Standard Specification for Slope Stabilization Using Vetiver Grass (coming soon) Dr. Mohammad Shariful Islam, a distinguished researcher and practitioner in the field of bioengineering, has done much to advance the understanding and application of Vetiver Grass Technology (VGT) as a…

Jim Smyle
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Labels: agriculture, climate change adaptation, community, Conference, Network News, Promotion & Dissemination, slope stabilization, uncategorized, Vetiver technical publications, Vetiver VideosTagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

Newsletter – The Vetiver System in 2024 (NL 2024-12)

The Vetiver System in 2024 As we come to the end of 2024 – which marked about 40 years since John Greenfield and Dick Grimshaw began to explore the use of Vetiver grass as an alternative to structural soil and…

Jim Smyle
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Labels: agriculture, climate change adaptation, climate change mitigation, community, disaster mitigation, erosion, Network News, policy, upscaling vetiver, Vetiver researchTagged , , , , , ,