Peteli Pese is the park ranger for the Togitogiga National Park, located as a part of the scenic Le Pupu-Pue Park, on the Pacific island nation of Samoa.
Situated south of the capital city Apia, the national park is a great tourist attraction, featuring several scenic locations and natural beauty that are popular with tourists. There are also many rare species of plants and animals in the park, and a widely varying terrain.
Peteli has been working in the Togitogiga Park since 1989, for the Samoan Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment (MNRE) to protect and conserve the park’s natural assets. He knows the land and its’ surrounding villages better than anyone.
The Park is also within an important watershed which provides a clean water supply for downstream communities. However, this water supply is now at risk. Recent live-stock expansion has meant rivers and channels have become polluted. Peteli sees the growing stock of cows eroding the lands and endangering the quality of the park’s water resources. This problem, combined with increasing numbers of invasive species, and a decreasing quantity of water levels, is worrying Peteli and his colleagues in the Ministry.
This is where the IUCN Water and Nature Initiative (WANI) has stepped in. Together with great knowledge providers such as Peteli, and keen Government staff willing to work out solutions such as MNRE, WANI is working with communities and government to reverse further degradation of the Togitogiga watershed.
Peteli is grateful that the project has started and looks forward to assisting the government in protecting the watershed area, in particular to safeguard downstream communities with a healthy water supply.
“The solution for this problem as I see it, is to try and remove the livestock to other areas and plant more trees, local tree species to maintain the soil stability. Preventing soil erosion is a major part of the WANI/MNRE project in Togitogiga Park”, says Peteli.
He also advocates ensuring that the soils are made more resilient to frequent cyclones by weeding out the Marinia Peletata invasive vines. “After the recent cyclone that hit Samoa, this vine had overtaken many of the indigenous species and is now rampant in the catchment area”, adds Peteli. He stresses that with the impact of climate change, these cyclones could become more and more frequent, thus the need to plant more local species to help maintain soil structures and protect water quality and quantity.
With these plans now in discussion and funds donated to address these problems, Peteli sees the future more brightly with better and healthier lives for Samoan communities.