Coconut palms of Samoa

Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa, is a sovereign state in Polynesia, encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. The entire island group, inclusive of American Samoa, was known as the Navigators Islands before the 20th century because of the Samoans’ seafaring skills.

Coconut is the most predominant crop grown in Samoa. Its traditional value and multipurpose uses make it one of the most important crops in the everyday lives of Samoans as an important source of food and cash.

This website was recently updated in the framework of two projects:

The UK Darwin Initiative project "Upgrading and broadening the new South-Pacific International Coconut Genebank" (reference 23-008) runs from June 2016 to March 2019. This project is being coordinated by Bioversity International; COGENT (the International Coconut Genetic Resources Network) and CIRAD (Centre de coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement), and is implemented in collaboration with: the Asia and Pacific Coconut Community (APCC); the curator of the South Pacific International Coconut Genebank (ICG-SP) hosted by the Cocoa Coconut Institute (CCI) in Papua New Guinea; the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT); Government relevant ministries from Fiji, Papua New Guinea (represented by Kokonas Indastri Korporesen, KIK) and Samoa; and the Pacific Community (SPC).
The project "Coconut Industry Development for the Pacific" (CIDP) is a joint initiative of the Pacific Community, the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States. Addition to this website were conducted in the framework of the PRAG07 expertise leaded by CIRAD, on "Coconut Production and Seeds System". For more details about this topic, please visit the new website:

Coconut planting material in the Pacific region

Samoan coconut varieties
Varieties and palms identified in 2017 in the framework of the Darwin project
List of coconut varieties recorded in Samoa in 2001

Collecting the niu afa coconut variety

Exportation and importation of Coconut germplasm from and to Samoa

Early Samoa, Niu afa and the naming of Niue Island
Old lists of coconut varieties in Samoa by Christophersen (1935) and Parham, 1972
About the first world coconut varietal contest organized in Samoa (1984)
Words related to coconut in Samoan language

Coconut research in Samoa
Nuu Research Station, in Samoa
The small coconut collection of Nuu research Station

Coconut planting material
MAF coconut nurseries in Samoa as of 2017
Planting material released by MAF in Samoa in 2017

The Old Olomanu seed garden and Genebank
Ideas for replanting the Olomanu Seed garden
Towards a new international genebank
Site and design proposal for the new Samoan Coconut genebank
The Westec plantation and large previous replanting projects
Landscaping two small Islands of Samoa using the Polymotu concept
Proposal for coconut conservation and seed production in small islands of Samoa

Recommendation regarding Coconut Genebanks from the COGENT Global Strategy

Boosting the coconut value chain

Farmers and coconut associations in Samoa

Public lectures and communication

Development of new handicraft using the niu afa coconut

Other useful information
For replanting material and techniques, please visit our website:
Planting material for the Pacific region
Old documents and books to be further studied
Smallest Islands of Samoa

A trip to Manono Island
Namu'a or Amanu'a Island

Landscapes of Upolu Island (South part)
Landscape of Upolu Island (North part)
Coconut palms varieties in Apia (in preparation)
Landscape of Savai (2001)
A survey of Apolima Island
Copra making near Olomanu seed garden in 2001
How to prepare leaflet samples for molecular analysis of coconut varieties.

Collecting coconut varieties for conservation
when Olomanu was the Samoan national coconut genebank

This website is under the Creative commons licence CC BY-ND 4.0, meaning you are free to duplicate all the available information as long as its source is appropriately cited, as R. Bourdeix & al, 2018. Coconut palms of Samoa. https://coconutsamoa.blogspot.com.

1000 stories about the coconut tree, choose randomly!

During the 35 years that I spent to work on the coconut tree, I produced approximately 1000 scientific papers or films. They are gathered in this drawing! Click randomly on it to see one or more. I ask for your indulgence, some papers are not finished yet (many in French), but I'm working on it!

General overview