Scaling up the adoption of EbA solutions using behaviour-centred design: The case of Vetiver grass for riverbank erosion control in Fiji

Project Information

“Planting for Resilience” is a project bringing together climate adaptation experts from the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), behavioural change scientists from Rare’s Center for Behavior & the Environment, and government officials from the Fijian Ministry of Environment and Climate Change.

The goal was to leverage insights from behavioural science to accelerate the uptake of ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) solutions among vulnerable communities in Fiji.  To this end, we developed a case study examining the extent to which a specific EbA solution promoted by the Fijian government – the use of vetiver grass for riverbank rehabilitation against flooding – was adopted in four communities in Tailevu province and the factors that influenced adoption among targeted communities.

Across the four rural villages, a series of semi-structured household interviews were undertaken in February 2023, coupled with village transect walks and participatory maps, focus group discussions with women, men and youth, and semi-structured interviews with experts at the national and provincial levels to understand past interventions.

Data was analysed using the behavioural driver model (BDM) developed by UNICEF in 2019. We found that there was very limited uptake of the vetiver in the selected communities.

Based on the data collected, the research team identified six core variables that seemed to influence farmers’ behaviour in relation to using vetiver against riverbank erosion:

salience of loss: whether villagers feel strongly about the negative impacts that erosion and flooding have on their lives
choice uncertainty: whether villagers are certain about the options available to them to reduce erosion
outcome efficacy: whether villagers feel vetiver grass will successfully reduce erosion
collective efficacy: whether villagers feel their community can plant and maintain vetiver to reduce erosion
self-efficacy: whether villagers feel they personally can successfully plant and maintain vetiver grass to reduce erosion
material access: whether villagers feel they can easily access and afford vetiver

These factors seem to currently matter the most in the selected communities and they should be prioritized in future interventions. Importantly, while each of the six drivers is important to support vetiver grass adoption, addressing each variable in a siloed manner will likely not be sufficient to bring sustained change.