Promoting use of vetiver grass for landslide protection: A pathway to achieve Sustainable Development Goals in Thailand

Abstract

Landslides have socio-economic and environmentally negative impacts and pose a threat to land security in many countries. The United Nations has defined landslide control as one of its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDG15: Life on Land highlighting soil resources is a foundation of land sustainability. In some developing countries, the soil bioengineering approach, which uses vegetation to stabilise earth slopes, is employed as an environmentally friendly and cost-effective solution for landslide protection. Previous studies report that vetiver grass is effective for landslide and soil erosion control. Thailand is one of the leading countries who has an excellent lesson learned in the promoting use of vetiver grass to reduce the risk of landslides at the community level. This research employed the Theory of Change to investigate the process and changes from the four communities throughout Thailand in the use of vetiver grass for soil erosion control and landslide prevention and its linkages to the SDGs. The results indicated that collaboration between local people and other stakeholders created knowledge, social value and learning lesson leading to changes in the local practices in the use of vetiver grass for sustainable landslide control. These practices can be used as driving tools to address SDGs in long-term. The outcome from this research can be a guideline for the sustainable application of using vegetation for landslide protection.