Samoa Conservation Society: Replanting O Le Pupu-Pu'e National Park

Samoa Conservation Society (SCS), founded in 2013, works to protect Samoa's native species and restore degraded rainforest, including inside O Le Pupu-Pu'e National Park on Upolu. Since starting its park restoration work, SCS and partners have propagated and planted more than 20,700 native tree seeds, including 13,000 planted between March and June 2023 alone, to help fix eroding, degraded land. SCS also leads Samoa's main recovery effort for the manumea (tooth-billed pigeon), a critically endangered bird found only in Samoa and one of the closest living relatives of the extinct dodo, whose population is now estimated at only a few hundred individuals at most. The group trains community field assistants in species identification and habitat monitoring and partners with Samoa's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment on protected-area management.