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The Samoa Conservation Society (Fa’asao Samoa) is an environmental organisation based in Samoa. Its purpose is to promote the conservation of Samoa’s biological diversity and natural heritage.[1] The society is active in efforts to save the critically-endangered Manumea, Samoa's national bird,[2][3] and in forest restoration.[4]
The society was established in 2013.[5] Its founding president was Tofilau Tepa Suaesi.[5] Its current president, elected in 2020, is James Atherton.[6]
The society's first project was to save the manumea,[7] and included raising awareness of its habitat and conservation status, and monitoring to understand its breeding and feeding habits.[8] In 2017 it led an international campaign with Auckland Zoo and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to try and save the bird from extinction.[9]
In 2016 the society began a pilot program with MNRE on offsetting carbon emissions by planting trees in O Le Pupu-Puʿe National Park.[10] This was expanded in 2017 into a national carbon offsetting programme.[11] In mid 2021 the programme planted 5,000 trees in 6 months [4] but has planted up to 25,000 trees since beginning in 2016.
In 2019 the society conducted a series of surveys to identify and take cuttings and seeds from endangered plants, which discovered that the endangered Vavea Samoense tree may be extinct.[12]
In 2021 the society launched a petition campaign against The Coca-Cola Company's use of plastic bottles in Samoa.[13]
In 2023 it announced plans to reintroduce the extinct butterfly Papilio godeffroyi to Samoa.[14]
The society has the following objectives:[15]
- To increase our knowledge and understanding of Samoa’s biodiversity and natural heritage through research and cataloguing of existing and new information;
- To improve awareness and of Samoa’s biodiversity through the exchange of information and environmental educational activities;
- To encourage the implementation of sustainable conservation projects and programmes that safeguard threatened species and ecosystems in collaboration with the Government of * Samoa, communities and other relevant stakeholders;
- To develop and strengthen collaborative partnerships between like- minded individuals, organisations, resource owners and Government agencies to achieve the objectives of the SCS;
- To raise funds and other resources that will assist with sustainable conservation projects, research and programmes for enhancing the protection of threatened species and vulnerable ecosystems.
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