A wheelchair access trail has been opened at the Vailima Botanical Gardens courtesy of a partnership between the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the British High Commission and Samoa Conservation Society.

The S.C.S. President James Atherton said the opening of the wheelchair accessible trail will give access to all visitors to the gardens and there are future plans for a wheelchair-friendly climb up the trail as well as braille signage for the visually impaired.

He said improvements also includes the establishment of the first ever Q.R. code for the trail as a tourism site in Samoa which means the availability of more information on the gardens.

"The garden sign bears the first Q.R. code in a tourism site in Samoa. The purpose is to provide more detailed information and in this case about the Vailima Botanical gardens and plant conservation efforts," said Mr. Atherton. 

"So people just need to save that Q.R. code on their phone and then open it in their camera app – it should take you to a web page." 

According to Mr. Atherton the Q.R. stands for “quick response” code which he said is basically a "barcode on steroids". 

While the barcode holds information horizontally, the Q.R. code does so both horizontally and vertically which enables the Q.R. code to hold over a hundred times more information 

The new trail – using 1 tonne of crushed glass courtesy of the Samoa Recycling & Waste Management Association – starts at the carpark and weaves its way through a developing medicinal plant garden, butterfly plant garden to the Information Fale, and the Art Whistler Memorial Garden for rare and threatened plant species.

The partners behind the new features of the trail and the gardens were credited for their support with Mr. Atherton singling out their commitment to green leadership.

"We thank the UK in Samoa for funding this trail and for their commitment to green leadership through carbon audits and offsets and supporting our plant conservation work and to Botanic Gardens Conservation International for their ongoing  support," he said.

"Thank you also to our partners Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Samoa for their invaluable support to conserve Samoa's threatened natural heritage.

"It was an honor to have representatives from Nuanua O Le Alofa, Disability Advocacy Organisation in Samoa (NOLA) share this exciting day with us. We thank NOLA for partnering with us to promote inclusivity and access for all.

"And a big fa'afetai to the Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa (SROS) for assisting with our plant collections, including many of the medicinal plants we have planted in our garden."

The contracted builder of some of the new features at the gardens, Isaia Iona Joinery, was also acknowledged for the new developments with Alvaro Hoyos for his work on the signage and photos of the opening.