But don’t form the impression that all is well within these small holder blocks. Where I currently work in the SW Pacific the population is rapidly growing and on traditional garden land soil fertility is falling. Fertiliser is too expensive for many to purchase and so ever steeper land is being gardened because of its existing fertility. On these steep slopes soil loss (and hence loss of fertility) is even more rapid. The greatest immediate need is to persuade the local people that soil erosion needs to be controlled and that there are very effective ways of doing that (vetiver grass hedges). Then the use of their traditional sustainable gardening techniques may be enough to support the larger population.