We thank all who attended the SCS AGM on Saturday Dec 14, 2024 at the Apia Yacht Club Sailing Samoa.

We hope members found the AGM useful and interesting. We appreciate all your ideas and suggestions which we will try to implement, hopefully with some help from you!

Thank you to the outgoing board members Ausalilo Leilani Duffy and Johannes Uili for your service in 2024.

Congratulations to the new SCS Executive for 2025:

President: James Atherton

Vice President: Sala Josephine Stowers

Secretary: Kuini Levy

Treasurer: Savave Sapolu

Board: Agnes Slade, Fogamomi Nicc Moeono, Dr Niusila Eteuati and Pouli Keneti Faulalo

We look forward to more conservation success in 2025, an active and engaged board and membership and continued development of our partnerships!

Yours in conservation,

Samoa Conservation Society

Here is the Presidents address from the 2024 AGM

PRESIDENT’S REPORT- 2024 AGM (Dec 10 2023- Dec 13 2024)

Talofa lava members and friends,

Thank you all for your attendance today at our 2024 AGM. This is our tenth AGM with the last one held on Dec 9, 2023, also here at the Apia Yacht Club.

It has been my pleasure, pain and privilege to have served another term as President this year, my sixth as President.  I would like to first acknowledge and thank the 8 member Executive Board who have served this year. The 2024 Executive Members include as well as myself as President:

The Vice President: Sala Josephine Stowers Kolo

The Secretary: Agnes Slade

The Treasurer: Johannes Uili

The Executive Committee: Ausalilo Leilani Duffy, Dr Niusila Eteuati, Nicc Moeono and Pouli Dr Keneti Faulalo

I would like to thank our 7 hardworking and dedicated SCS staff- Faleafaga Toni Tipamaa, Aloma Black, Fata Lafi Esera, Sefuiva Moeumu Uili, Seiuli Ioane Etuale, Lotomaulalo Levi and Paulo Vili. This year we welcomed back Moe after studying overseas and welcomed Loto and Seiuli as 2 new staff but farewelled Gene Meleisea whom we wish well in her future endeavours. I would also like to acknowledge our hard working intern Dani who volunteered with us in November. You will be hearing more from the staff shortly on their respective projects.

We have been extremely busy since the last AGM and I would like to highlight a few key achievements in the past 12 months. You will get more context and photos of many of these achievements in the staff presentations that follow:

• SCS income for 2023 was 570k and forecast income for 2024 is 513k tala over 9  grants (this does not include outstanding invoices which are around 100k tala)
• Staff headcount increased from 5 to 7
• Moved to a bigger space at the NUS marine campus in July
• Continued engagement with our village conservation projects at Uafato and Falealupo and started a new project at Moamoa
• Opened the Magiagi CA to protect Fale o le fee etc
• Nurtured and released a ground dove (Maxine)
• Planted more than 10,000 trees in our village projects at OLPP NP, Moamoa, Magiagi and Falealupo and offset our SCS c-emissions for 2024 of 210 trees
• Developed and opened Samoa’s first butterfly garden at VBG and a digital nature trail up Mt Vaea
• Supported the Mulinu’u Coastal Cleanup Day in June and September
• SCS staff participated at a number of CHOGM side events and represented SCS at meetings in Africa, Europe, Palau and at the IUCN Conservation Congress in Fiji
• Featured in 7 stories in the Samoa Observer this year and were on local and overseas TV news
• Developed new merchandise including a butterfly poster, tourist map, 2025 calendar and reprinting of the hiking and pictorial nature guide as well as 4 short project videos
• Submitted around 5 grant applications this year and started three major new projects in 2024- the Kiwa Inspire project at Malololelei (195k Euro) the EU funded “Our Future is Now” (78k Euro) in partnership with SRWMA and the ISLAND project at OLPP NP (40k USD)

Plans for 2025 and beyond:

Our main priorities for 2025 are similar to the priorities every year- to secure more grants and to fundraise aggressively for more discretionary funds in particular so we can move to a bigger space and hire a full time Executive Director position to support the Operations Manager in the day to day management of the organisation and to relieve the Executive who are all volunteers.  We also need to finalise our new 5 year strategic plan which expired last year and to build more member engagement.

To wrap up I would like to thank our many friends, partners and donors for your continued support and belief in us. Our mission is an important one and I truly believe we are making a very positive difference here. We just need to consolidate and keep building towards a more secure financial basis. I wish the incoming Executive great success and may I also wish you all a blessed Christmas holiday season with friends and family.

Faafetai lava ma soifua,

James Atherton, President