The Samoa Conservation Society has called for help from the public to help eradicate the invasive rattan palm.

The initial work to fight the plant started in 2006. The invasive plant was introduced in the 1990s for a failed cane furniture business. The rattan plant is a branching palm that grows like a vine with large spines and is distinctly silver under the leaves.

The recent rattan palm tree was spotted at Tuaefu by Alexandra Siolo, and a staff member from SCS has already reached out and gone to Tuaefu to inspect and help remove it. As it poses a threat to forest walkers.

Seiuli Ioane Etuale, staff from SCS said the plant was brought into Samoa as an ornamental plant however because of its features, people decided to use it to make furniture. 

"Because it looks like bamboo they decided to use it to build furniture from it like chairs and that sort. It was brought here for a different purpose but it was used for another different thing," he said.

"We have partnered up with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (M.N.R.E) to eradicate these plants. Every year we monitor to see if there are any plants left in Samoa. 

"Once we find it, we remove it immediately. This year, we've also done our monitoring and inspection. But Alex called us about his discovery of the rattan palm plant in his area, so we went there and removed it."

A social media post on Facebook by Samoa Conservation Society has clarified the reasons behind the need to eradicate the rattan palm plants as soon as possible. 

"If allowed to escape, rattan will make walking in the forest a potentially painful exercise of negotiating around the sharp spines that snag on your clothes or skin. This time we removed one mature seven-metre-long rattan that had been found by Mr Siolo a few months ago. We thank Mr Siolo for helping us with our rattan eradication project and continually looking for rattan in the forests around his house at Tuaefu where rattan was planted in the 1990s. 

"Given that the rattan we found today was around 150 metres from the area that was planted with rattan in the early 1990s, we believe that it had been spread there by birds. We must keep looking for rattan in case there are more plants and will inform our members of future raids in case members are interested in joining. Two years after finding the last rattan palm we can finally declare Samoa to be rattan-free!"

The SCS is urging the public to report to them if they come across any rattan plant by telephone number 7575300 or email them at [email protected].