The Samoa Conservation Society (S.C.S) will soon receive NZ$99,000 ($170,000 tala) in funding to support the country's conservation efforts.

The funding comes courtesy of the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (M.F.A.T) and was announced by the Prime Minister of Samoa, Fiame Naomi Mata'afa at the opening of the Art Whistler Memorial Garden last Thursday evening.

"You may have noticed some beautiful metal birds here in the garden. Sixty metal Manumea birds were specially made for us by the Metalbird Company in New Zealand, who have partnered with Samoa to support the recovery of our national bird, our Manumea," Fiame old guests last Thursday.

"Some of these birds have kindly been donated for this garden and soon people all over the world will be able to purchase their very own."

Thirty percent of the proceeds from the sales will go back to the S.C.S. and the M.N.R.E. to support work in “Manumea friendly villages” that are already working to conserve the unique bird.

Fiame gave her thanks to Metalbird for their gift for the garden and their support for Samoa's conservation activities.  

"We are also happy to announce that M.N.R.E. and S.C.S. are in the final stages of finalising funding support to the value of NZ$99,000 from New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to be managed by the NZ Department of Conservation to support Samoa’s conservation efforts, with a particular focus on Manumea as a flagship for conservation of our native plants and animals," Fiame said on Thursday.

“We thank our N.Z. government partners for your ongoing support for conservation in Samoa.”

The President of the S.C.S, James Atherton told the Samoa Observer in a telephone interview on Friday that the metal birds are a partnership between the S.C.S and the Metalbird company in New Zealand that manufactures metal birds for gardens around the world.

"So it's a new partnership and we are very proud of and very grateful for the support of the Metalbird company Auckland," he said.

He said that the company has gifted them 60 metal birds to use for conservation work and raise awareness on the Manumea.

"And we have given some to Manumea friendly villages like Faleaseela and we will be giving more to other manumea friendly villages around Samoa in the coming months," he said.

Mr. Atherton further emphasised that funding from New Zealand is yet to be received, as they are still negotiating and are currently working with the M.N.R.E. on the finer details of the grant funding from New Zealand.

“But it’s gonna be funding for Manumea conservation, it will be NZD$99,000 and it’ll come to S.C.S and M.N.R.E to work with Manumea friendly villages and to promote conservation of Manumea also to manage threats including restoring forests, raising awareness on hunting and other activities, promotion of ecotourism,” he said. 

He said that the idea is to tackle a range of threats in a holistic way and that requires working with these villages which include Faleaseela and Uafato and Afiamalu on Upolu, and Salelologa, Aopo and Falealupo in Savai'i.

“And we work with them on raising awareness about the bird, we use the bird as a flagship so that’s really important for conservation," said Mr Atherton. 

"So to save the bird, you can’t just manage the threats to the bird you have to manage the threats to the forest too, because the bird need the trees and the plants to survive so we use it as flagship to promote broader conservation of the forest and conservation in general as our national bird."

“If we save the bird we save the forest.”

Mr. Atherton emphasised that this will be a partnership between the S.C.S, the M.N.R.E, the New Zealand Department of Conservation and the New Zealand Government.