Samoa forestry outlook study

Abstract

Forests and forestry in Samoa are impacted by a number of factors acting sometimes singly but more often, in combination. The most pronounced and dramatic in effect have been environmental, economic and demographic. Samoa’s forest cover has been declining steadily since the first aerial photos were taken in 1954 due to agro-deforestation and later, during the mid 1970s, by logging. Tropical cyclones have played their part in forest degradation and fragmentation (Whitmore 1984), but the 1990 and 1991 cyclones were especially devastating, both in the extent of degradation and loss to the native forests, but more so on the plantation forest resource.