Securing the future of Samoa’s threatened botanical heritage – development of a native plants conservation garden 

The Samoa Conservation Society is working closely with the Samoan Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and with technical and funding support from BGCI and the UK High Commission in Samoa, to establish Samoa’s very first botanic garden, the Vailima Botanical Gardens (VBG). The VBG Masterplan was developed in late 2021 and work began in 2022 to establish the first zone which includes a rare and threatened native plants garden, medicinal plants garden and butterfly plants garden. 

Development on the Art Whistler Memorial Garden (AWMG) for rare and threatened plants started in 2019 and was formally opened by Prime Minister of Samoa, Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa, in 2021. This garden was established in memory of the late Dr Art Whistler, an ethnobotanist specialising in the flora of Samoa. The AWMG holds over 10 of Samoa’s rare and threatened plant species, with many endemic to Samoa, including the ‘pau’ (Manilkara samoensis), which is endemic to only a very small part of western Savaii.  

The medicinal plants garden now holds some 15 of Samoa’s traditional medicinal plant species, including the ‘matalafi’(Psychotria insularum) which has been found to exhibit similar anti-inflammatory activity as ibuprofen. There are more than 70 known medicinal plants which have been used in traditional Samoan medicine since prehistoric times. 

Planting commenced in the butterfly plants garden with the ‘talafalu’ (Micromelum minutum), the host plant for the endemic Samoan Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio godeffroyi), which is now extinct in Independent (Western) Samoa, however, still found in American Samoa. Future hopes for this species are to grow enough ‘talafalu’ to reintroduce the Swallowtail butterfly back to Samoa. 

A new wheelchair-accessible trail was established in the VBG and officially opened in mid-2022 by the UK High Commission in Samoa. This new trail, which uses 1 ton of crushed glass from recycled glass bottles, meanders through the medicinal, butterfly and the soon-to-be-developed ornamental plant gardens. This trail aims to open the VBG to all visitors, with a gradual wheelchair-friendly climb and, in future, braille signage for the visually impaired. This trail makes the VBG the first national reserve in Samoa to be wheelchair accessible. 

Future plans for the VBG include developing an ornamental plants garden which will display flowers of Samoa and the Pacific, as well as extending the wheelchair-accessible trail, establishing a fern garden and zones dedicated to each rainforest type in Samoa (coastal, lowland, montane and cloud forest zones).