National Environment & Development Sector Plan 2013 - 2016

This Plan determines how Samoa plan to meet their SDG targets regarding the natural environment and its links to human activities, which include agriculture, water and sanitation, infrastructure, energy and tourism. It distinguishes between eight types of environments, such as upland, lowland, coastal and protected habitats. One key objective of the plan is to implement ecosystem-based strategies to support climate change mitigation and adaptation. It also identifies the following ways to adapt to climate change impacts: 1) implement sustainable plans for improving the protection of critical catchment areas, 2) assign priority to securing the full protection of the entire Apia, Vaisigano and Tafitoala catchment areas, 3) promote and support the replanting of catchment and erosion prone areas, 4) promote and support the replanting of mangrove forests and exposed coastal areas, 5) encourage and facilitate the relocation of households away from high risk flood-prone areas, 6) promote the growing of food crops that are not vulnerable to wind damage, 7) support the full implementation of Samoa's NAPA, 8) encourage the implementation of natural solutions to enhance coastal resilience to climate change, 9) promote efforts to rehabilitate all degraded land areas through the replanting of appropriate tree species and the use of sustainable soil management techniques, and 10) develop and promote sustainable models of future climate for project sites based on a range of climate change scenarios.