Some Background on Eco-Camp Samoa

Pristine beach on the shores of Lalomanu, Samoa, with clear turquoise waters and lush palm trees under a vibrant blue sky.

We are really excited that action is being taken to get on with the establishment of Eco-Camp Samoa. This is a programme that has been years in the planning. We will begin with basic amenities including 12 beach fale supported by a cooking house and ablution block. This will be the launch pad for coral reef restoration and other crops landside.

Come and join us, plant some coral, go for a swim !

Project Vision

The proposed camp on the lands of the Fuataga Asini Aiga will serve as a central base for intergenerational collaboration, environmental action, and sustainable livelihood development. It will provide a vital gathering place for the wider aiga to mobilise around practical, replicable projects focused on environmental protection and economic self-sufficiency.

The camp will be the launching point for reef restoration efforts, bee hive installations, vanilla plantations, and chicken egg farming — all designed to offer environmentally sound alternatives to existing land-use practices. These initiatives are based on years of research into locally suitable crops and activities, with the goal of developing sustainable income streams that can be shared across the Asini lands and replicated in other regions of Samoa.

In addition to supporting local families in accessing better housing, health, and education through land-based income, the camp will also host international volunteers. Visitors will have the opportunity to contribute to reef and land restoration efforts while sharing valuable skills with local communities. This exchange will foster cooperation, build capacity, and promote deeper cross-cultural understanding.

1. Promoting Social, Cultural, and Economic Self-Sufficiency

This project brings families together through a shared purpose of environmental restoration and community upliftment. As the late Letele Sa Maria Farani Glanville wisely said, “a family that works and plays together stays together.” This vision of togetherness echoes the communal values of village life where everyone contributes, and everyone benefits.

Key activities — such as reef restoration, crop processing for export, and ecological education — are designed to strengthen local food security, create income, and honour the land as both provider and taonga. Led by the family’s matai and supported by the traditional village structure, the camp demonstrates that modern financial stability can be achieved while remaining grounded in the values of the fa’a Samoa.

The export-oriented model — focusing on high-value crops like honey, vanilla, and cocoa — avoids overreliance on the limited domestic market. Rooted in open-source principles, the project invites knowledge-sharing and replication, rather than competition, ensuring the entire aiga can rise together.

2. Improving Legal Access to Facilities and Resources

The project formalises community access to shared resources that previously may have been isolated or underutilised. The Asini Aiga has made culturally significant land available, and with that comes a commitment to equitable access, training, and opportunity.

The camp will include sleeping huts, kitchen and ablution facilities, and a meeting fale. It will also serve as a central hub for processing crops for export, and for distributing the skills and knowledge needed to make this possible across the wider aiga. This infrastructure not only supports community enterprise but lays the foundation for regional export access and sustainable livelihoods grounded in lawful, cooperative land use.

3. Improving Health, Living Standards, and Quality of Life

The project enhances wellbeing by supporting reef health, food security, and income generation — the building blocks of sustainable health and living standards. As reef ecosystems regenerate, local fishing improves. As families adopt high-profit, low-footprint crops, they gain income for housing, healthcare, and education.

The eco camp dwellings are designed to blend the strengths of traditional housing with sustainable innovation. Powered by solar energy and equipped with hygienic kitchens and toilets, these spaces model dignified, affordable, and culturally relevant living. In every sense, the camp is about creating a better life while honouring the land and its people.

4. Protecting Endangered or Threatened Species

Through coral reef planting, the project actively protects and regenerates endangered coral species, contributing to the restoration of vital marine ecosystems. Ongoing monitoring of crown-of-thorns starfish populations will reduce threats to reef biodiversity and help restore natural fish habitats.

Historically, the reef adjacent to the project site was home to sea turtles and giant clams. Efforts to restore the beach and marine zone include creating safe nesting areas for turtles and replanting the giant clam, with the long-term goal of re-establishing these species as local symbols of recovery and resilience.

5. Promoting the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources

The camp’s on-site nurseries — for vanilla, cocoa, and coral — are central to teaching sustainable propagation and management. Participants will learn by doing: how to raise crops and restore marine life in a way that regenerates the land and sea, rather than depleting them.

This hands-on model is paired with open-source training, enabling replication across the wider aiga. It builds both environmental literacy and practical capacity, ensuring that the community not only conserves what it has, but enhances it for future generations.

6. Conserving Unique Habitats and Ecosystems

The project site is a rare coastal zone where a freshwater spring feeds into a stream and lagoon system, creating a unique freshwater–saltwater ecosystem that supports biodiversity not found elsewhere.

The project protects this special environment through careful land use, coral restoration, and runoff management. By conserving this convergence of spring, stream, lagoon, and reef, the project safeguards an ecosystem of great biological and cultural importance.

7. Conserving Sites of Historic and Cultural Heritage

This land holds deep spiritual and cultural meaning for the Asini Aiga. It was traditionally used by healers who gathered medicinal plants and spring water believed to have healing properties — a practice known in fofo. This knowledge still lives within the aiga and will be shared and renewed through the project.

Additionally, the beach has great emotional significance as the site where members of the aiga were lost in the 2009 tsunami. In their memory, and in the spirit of ancestral leadership, a traditional falealala will be built — a chief’s retreat house where wisdom is sought, and family strategy shaped. This repurposing of cultural spaces for development ensures tradition remains the anchor of innovation.

8. Raising Awareness of Cultural and Environmental Heritage

The camp will serve as an educational hub, hosting villagers and international guests for hands-on workshops in reef planting, bee-keeping, and crop cultivation. These sessions will be grounded in talanoa — the traditional Samoan practice of knowledge sharing through storytelling.

This spoken wisdom will also be documented in online resources, preserving ecological knowledge and insights into the fa’a Samoa for both local youth and the wider Pacific diaspora. The camp is a stage where past and future meet in conversation.

9. Building Capacity in Local Communities

The project offers immersive training for all — young and old, men and women, titled and untitled. Through practical involvement in reef restoration and crop development, participants will learn high-level skills such as coral propagation, vanilla pollination, cocoa fermentation, and bee colony management.

In line with the fa’a Samoa, the project ensures every person has a role. This collective approach strengthens identity and self-reliance while equipping families with the tools to build sustainable livelihoods rooted in cultural pride and ecological balance.

10. Improving Cooperation and Communication Between Communities

The Asini Aiga is deeply connected across Samoa through familial links and shared heritage. This project builds on those networks, offering a model that can be shared and replicated throughout the region.

The camp will host fono matai (chiefs’ meetings), youth gatherings, women’s councils, and community events — creating space for unity, planning, and intergenerational leadership. In bringing people together, the project also brings ideas, dreams, and actions together — laying the foundation for long-term collaboration between communities.