An e-book promoting ecotourism activities and sites in Samoa will be launched at the end of this year with Samoa Conservation Society (S.C.S.) overseeing its production.

Members of the S.C.S. have been doing research on the country’s terrain and sea and have included their findings in the e-book with Volume 1 of the publication focusing on hiking in Upolu and Volume 2 on Savai’i.

The book will be co-authored by Ned Brown, James Atherton, Pepe Letoa and Charmina Saili. According to the S.C.S. President Mr Atherton, the e-copies of the book will be made available to schools in Samoa.

"We are still adding hikes to Volume 1 on Upolu and doing the maps and photos and the book should be ready by the end of the year," he said. 

"However should people want to know more of the hiking sites in the meantime they can email us on [email protected]"

Details of the e-book were announced at a gathering at the Insel Fehmarn Hotel on Tuesday night attended by S.C.S. members as well as the Australian High Commissioner to Samoa, Emily Luck and her family.

According to Mr Atherton, the High Commissioner will be joining with her family in the family membership category.

The types of hikes highlighted in the book included urban hikes, established overland hikes, coastline hikes and river hikes. The compilation of the book coincides with the opening of Samoa’s borders from next Monday.

Giving an example of the sort of information that can be found in the publication, S.C.S. Board Member and Project Coordinator, Faleafaga Toni Tipimaa told the Samoa Observer that he used to be a surveyor for the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources. 

"I used to climb some of those sites for the M.N.R.E. Now I can see that a lot of the sites we never visited have been covered by James [Atherton] and Ned [Brown]," he said. 

Faleafaga also talked of the mountainous peak of Mt Vaivai which was recently categorised as the highest point of Upolu, instead of Mt Fito as previously thought. 

He said in the late 1980s they were up the mountain and figured that Mt Fito was not the highest point. 

“I don't know what happened to the job we did, which was to place the trig point up in that area, recently discovered by James and the group. 

“The boys were supposed to change the digits for the highest point but I guess it never happened.

"I also suspect that the SPIA aeroplane that crashed which was said to have depleted on Mt Fito is incorrect because they couldn't find the dead bodies there. 

“The bodies were discovered under Mt Vaivai which makes sense given the conditions of the day of the flight and the cloud forest up there.”