Samoa: Respecting the Mangroves

Case Study

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Introduction

This case study is set on the island of Upolo, the second largest of the nine islands of Samoa. It describes the impacts of waste on the local environment, especially on many fragile mangrove areas. The study also outlines some of the actions undertaken to manage the island's household waste and to protect the mangroves from further harm.

Profile

• Polynesia, South Pacific Ocean
• The capital, Apia, is 4,500 km from Sydney

• 1,110 km2

• Tropical with average temperature 26.5^oC
• Wet season between November and April
• Local storm patterns may cause destructive cyclones

• 110,000

• Samoan and English

• Agriculture
• Foreign aid and money from Samoans working overseas

• 80% of the land is in traditional ownership
• Balance is mainly government owned

It is believed that Polynesians settled in the Samoan islands about 3,000 years ago, after migrating from Southeast Asia through Melanesia. Samoan explorers later discovered and settled Tonga, the Society and other island groups in the South Pacific. Post European

• 1722 - Sighted by Dutch explorers
• 1787 - First Europeans land (French)
• 1830 - First missionaries land
• 1855 - Colonised by Germany
• 1890 - Treaty gives Samoa officially to Germany
• 1914 - New Zealand takes over Samoa at start of World War 2
• 1920 - Becomes a trust territory of New Zealand
• 1962 - First South Pacific country to gain independence

Background

Samoa is distinctively Polynesian in its culture. Most of its people live in the traditional villages that dot the coastline of the main islands, Upolo and Savaii. In these villages, people live according to 'faa Samoa' - the Samoan way of life. More than any other Polynesian people, Western Samoans choose to keep their closely knit village system alive.

Samoan society is based on the extended family system with several generations living together. Each family has at least one head person (matai) and each village has a council made up of the matai. Meetings are regularly held in special houses where the matai decide the future of the village and the fate of villagers themselves. Although there are police and a government court, justice is chiefly carried out according to traditional laws.

The buildings in the villages reflect the traditional way of life. The wall-less houses (fales), may be built of modern materials but are still designed according to tradition. Household items such as mats, baskets and ceremonial clothing are woven from natural materials decorated with patterns handed down through the generations. Carvings decorate the buildings, canoes and household wooden ware. Tapa cloth, made from beaten tree bark and printed with natural dyes, is still made and is highly prized.

The island of Upolo is lush and green with hundreds of species of flowering plants, herbs, spices, fruits and vegetables. Plant life grows abundantly due to the high rainfall and warm climate and it comes as no surprise to learn that agriculture is the main industry. However, agriculture is the main cause of one of Upolo's biggest environmental problems - the loss of much of its forest cover. Today, the protection of the remaining forests is an important issue in government planning.

Damage to coastal areas is another major environmental problem on the island. Reefs, lagoons and mangrove swamps all show signs of damage from human activities. Mangrove areas are under particular threat. These areas are often seen as mosquito breeding places, only useful for rubbish dumps or to be filled in for development.

However, mangroves are a very important part of the island's environment and there is an urgent need to protect the remaining mangrove areas.

Waste Management Issues.

The government only collects rubbish in the township of Apia. Approximately 0.25 kg of waste per person per day is collected. The waste is transported to a landfill site high in the hills behind the town. Sometimes during the wet season the road is closed and the rubbish is dumped elsewhere. There are growing fears that the ground water below the site is polluted by the leachate from the rotting waste.

Most the town's waste goes to this landfill site including; sewage, medical, industrial, commercial and household wastes. Once the waste arrives at the site it is partly sorted. Yeast from the brewery, sewage, big metal objects such as car bodies and machinery, household appliances and household waste go into separate areas. There is also a special pit for hospital waste.

Around the township itself, people are encouraged to be responsible with their rubbish. To encourage Apia's population to throw its rubbish in the right place, the Beautification Committee organised a competition for village youth groups. The groups were given large steel drums and paints donated by local businesses and asked to decorate them with environmental designs and messages. The brightly painted drums are placed throughout Apia's business district.

Household Waste

Rubbish is collected from households in Apia twice a week. The rubbish for collection is placed on high stands to stop scavenging dogs, pigs and chickens from spreading it around. Household waste is largely unsorted for recycling and due to lifestyle change, the waste now contains a high percentage of food and garden materials.

The villages outside the township of Apia, manage their own waste. The households have to dispose of their rubbish into the local environment. Animals eat much of the food waste and other organic matter rots into the ground. Some rubbish is burned, buried or composted but much of it is thrown into streams, riverbanks, the beaches and mangroves. As imported goods increase so too does the amount of waste. Materials such as plastic bags and containers, cans, tins, bottles and car related wastes are now seen in the open environment. The traditional practice of putting waste into a simple heap and letting nature take care of it, no longer works.

Recycling is not yet well established in Samoa. Government trials to collect and send aluminium cans away for recycling did not succeed, although there is a private business collecting cans. The recycling markets for other materials such as PET are too far away and the buying price is too low. However, glass drink bottles are successfully collected, washed and refilled. There is a refund of 30c for every glass Coke and Vailima bottle returned. Very few of these bottles end up in the dump or in the environment!

Waste Impacts on Mangrove Areas.

Over the years many of the mangrove swamps on Upolo have been used as rubbish dumps by both local villages and the government. One example is Vaiusu Bay in Apia, one of the largest areas of mangroves in Eastern Polynesia and the biggest fish breeding and feeding grounds in Samoa.

Part of this mangrove area has been filled in and Apia's last rubbish dump lies under much of the reclaimed land. Approximately 3,000 tonnes of rubbish was disposed of each year into this site. When it rains the runoff from the buried rubbish dump pollutes the main bay and the seafood is unsafe to eat. The nearby village of Vaitaloa still suffers from the effects of the old dump. Meaning "flooded", the village is left surrounded by a tidemark of rubbish after heavy rains.

The village of Moataa is another mangrove area badly affected by waste and reclamation. In 1993 Moataa took part in Samoa's first Clean Up the World Campaign. An important part of the campaign was the cleaning up and restoration of the mangrove swamp. For years the area had become a dumping place for all sorts of rubbish, destroying it as a fish habitat and breeding ground. The campaign organiser, the Reverend Samuelu Ruapena, remembers a time when the fish were plentiful and the mangroves clear of rubbish. He knows how important the mangroves are to the future of the village and the local environment.

Working for the Mangroves.

The O le Siosiomaga Society and Komiti Tumama

These two non government organisations work with communities to raise awareness about the environment. O le Siosiomaga is campaigning to save the Moataa mangrove swamp from further rubbish dumping and reclamation, and to protect another large area, Saanapu Satoa. They also lobby the government to restore the Vaiusu Bay mangroves.

Komiti Tumama is a women's group that works to educate people about waste and other issues. The members run waste education workshops for small communities. They train village leaders who in turn train others. Another of their projects encourages local villagers to have tourists stay in their homes. Local people train as guides and in this way the villagers learn more about their own environment.

Tourism such as this is sometimes called ecotourism. By working in local and small ways and with the environment in mind, everybody is rewarded.

Destination Saanapu

The village of Saanapu is a living example of an ecotourism destination. The villagers encourage visitors to stay in their homes where they experience and learn about the environment from the local people.

In Saanapu, village life is still lived in the old Samoan way. The 600 or so villagers live on a narrow, sandy strip of land between the ocean and a large mangrove lagoon. Behind the lagoon, are the village gardens and plantations. The fales that make up the village are built along the edge of the lagoon. Built mostly from local materials the wall-less fales are well suited to the climate. Rolled, woven "blinds" can be pulled down to protect against wind or rain.

But however traditional Saanapu may be, it does have electricity, and, while the women cook breakfast on woodfires and the older children get ready for school, the youngest family members watch early morning television. During the day, older family members look after the pre-school children whose parents work in Apia.

Everyone in the village works; sweeping, preparing food, working in the gardens and plantations, repairing canoes or fales, fishing, weaving mats or washing clothes in the nearby stream. Pigs and chickens freely roam around eating food scraps and keeping the ground free of weeds.

Almost all of Saanapu's food is locally produced or caught but, like villages throughout Samoa, there is a small shop that sells flour, rice and sugar in bulk, ice-cream, tinned meat, soft drinks and some local fruit.

Night falls quickly and the conch shell sounds curfew at 8 pm. Nobody walks around the village after that time. After the evening meal, mattresses are placed on the woven sleeping mats and mosquito nets strung up. The village sleeps early during the working week. Sunday is church and feasting day when the smoke from the traditional cooking ovens (umu) fills the air. The food is wrapped in taro leaves and cooked over hot stones in the ground.

Little waste is produced on a daily basis in Saanapu. Locally grown and harvested produce has no packaging and the animals take care of most of the food waste. However waste does come in from the outside world; cars and car parts, machinery, batteries, tins and containers and plastic packaging.

To help the villagers manage their non organic waste and keep the environment clean the government organises special clean ups. The villagers collect the waste and government trucks transport it to the landfill site in Apia. The government Health Department also teaches people about the dangers of wastes such as batteries and chemicals. These wastes are harmful to the mangrove environment and to human health.

Maintaining the Mangroves

Saanapu is part of a large mangrove conservation project that aims to preserve this unspoiled mangrove environment. The project is managed by a government officer who works closely with the village environment committee. The committee members attend regular meetings where they learn about the importance of the area and its economic value.

To maintain the health of the mangroves in Saanapu, there are strict rules in place. Government officers and local conservationists keep a close watch on the area. They monitor water quality and keep records of the plant, fish and animal species. They also make sure that no developments take place that would harm the mangroves and that villagers collect only enough mangrove wood for their direct needs. They encourage the locals to work with them to protect the area.

Educating for the Future

Many people believe that education is one of the most important ways to help the environment. People from the community, from non government organisations (NGOs) and from the government, work in such programs.

Tepa Suesi is an environmental education officer with the government. He takes visitors and children into special conservation areas, including mangroves, and his office walls are covered with drawings and letters of thanks. Tepa knows how important education about the environment is.

He says that people today have the wrong attitude. He believes that the way forward is to educate young people to see the world in a positive way. As Tepa says "We, the adults should tell how the world should and could be so we can all work together towards that vision. This would break the idea that we can't make it happen!"

The more that people learn about fragile environments such as mangroves and how to care for them, the better the chances of their survival. The survival of the mangrove areas would also ensure the healthy survival of the people.

Mangroves

Mangroves are amazing trees that live halfway between the land and the sea. Unlike other plants, they grow with their roots in an alternating environment of sea water and fresh water runoff from the land.

Mangroves play an important role in many coastal environments. As well as providing food and shelter for a large number of birds and marine animals, mangroves protect and build up the coastline.

The Mighty Mangrove:

1. Birdlife/Nesting

The mangrove provides feeding and roosting grounds for many bird species that prefer or need a coastal habitat.

2. Leaves

Each leaf is a tiny solar panel, dark on top to soak up the sun's energy and convert it to chemical energy (photosynthesis). With no canopy of trees to protect its leaves, the upper surface has evolved to be hard, leathery and shiny to conserve water.

3. Food web

Mangroves are one of the starting points in the great chain of marine and seashore life. Decaying leaves and animal wastes produce nutrients that sustain a mass of algae and plankton. These are then eaten by crabs, eels and fish. Birds and larger fish eat smaller fish and so the food web extends.

4. Shelter/Nursery

The mangrove forest provides a nurturing place for plankton, algae, snails, shellfish and bottom dwelling creatures and is a necessary nursery area for young fish, including commercially important species.

5. Mangrove Litter

Mangroves are one of the world's most productive vegetation types. Each year they shed millions of leaves - approximately ten tonnes per hectare! The rotting leaves form a nutrient compost - a valuable food source for many organisms.

6. Roots

The mud that surrounds the mangrove tree lacks oxygen. As all trees need air, the mangrove has evolved spongy roots that stick up from the mud and breathe for the plant.

7. Shoreline Protection

Mangroves form an underground network of roots that hold the earth together and prevent it from being washed away. Above the ground the roots act like a comb and trap bits of earth and sediment; in these ways mangroves build up and extend shorelines.

Mangrove seedlings grow in the newly formed ground and the mangrove front advances towards the sea.

8. Renewable resources.

Mangroves are used to provide dyes, or colouring material, and wood for cooking and building. They can continue to be used this way forever, as long as the quantity of mangroves cut down is no more than that which can be replaced by natural growth.

9. Food for people

Many important food species use the mangroves for at least part of their life-cycle;

• permanent home for some species such as oysters and mud crabs
• nursery areas for animals such as prawns and mangrove mullet
• feeding areas for the black spot sea perch, which visits to feed

10. Storm Protection

Mangroves are the first line of defence against storm surges and cyclones. The closely formed root systems help to break strong wave action. The densely formed trees act as a wind break against hurricane force winds.

5 Ways to protect mangroves

1. Mangrove areas should not be used as rubbish dumps.
2. Mangrove areas should not be filled in for development.
3. Coastal roads should not be built through mangrove areas, preventing the flow of freshwater runoff.
4. Mangroves should be kept clear of pollution such as chemical, oil and sewage.
5. Mangroves should be seen as they are - a vital part of the coastal environment.

Our Environment.

(A story written by a Year 5 student from Robert Louis Stevenson Primary School, Samoa.)

The Earth is turning into a rubbish tin because people are throwing junk, food and toys all over the world. The Earth is polluted with junk. We can make the Earth better if we pick up our rubbish and put it into bins instead of leaving it lying around.

Look at the paradise surrounding you. Would you like it if this huge garden was destroyed? I wouldn't want the garden we've lived in for so many years destroyed.

Our sea is also being polluted by oil and rubbish from factories. It is also being destroyed by dynamite when people fish the lazy way. And what if the air is destroyed by gas and pollution? The animals and people would be gone and it was humans who threw their junk on the ground that caused it!

I have only one mesage to say and I hope that everyone else thinks the same thing.

"Save our Earth!"

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