Sep 26, 2025
Learn how governments across the Pacific are piloting innovative ways to cope with increasingly extreme weather patterns. Under a set of CIF-financed resilience projects in the region, one small-scale initiative in Samoa demonstrates how a resilient approach to land management also makes smart economic sense.
It started, like many good ideas do, with a challenge. On the Samoan island of Upolu, areas of the hilly inland forest—the island’s natural watershed—had been cleared for cattle farming and monocropping. The cleared land could not easily absorb rainfall in the wet season, causing floods downhill, while in the dry season the sun evaporated the stored moisture that normally fed into the island’s water supply.
Longer droughts and heavier rains were exacerbating these cycles, resulting in dangerous flooding and shortages of drinking water. But how to alleviate the impacts without diminishing farmers’ incomes?
Asuao Malaki Iakopo and his team at Samoa’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (pictured above) came up with a unique solution: interplanting drought-resistant cash crops and indigenous vegetation, through a public-private partnership with local coconut oil producer Serendi Coco.
Financed by CIF and implemented by the World Bank, this innovative project has helped restore the land’s ability to absorb rain and release it safely in the drier months—while also benefiting local farmers.
“We're not saying stop agriculture. But we're saying we do [agriculture] in a much more sustainable and also very smart way,” says Iakopo.
A “win-win” solution
Albert Lawrence Milo lives on his family’s farm on Upolu, where his parents previously grazed cattle among a scattering of older coconut trees. “[Before] we only had the cows in the whole land,” Albert says.
Now, thanks to the project, portions of farms like Albert’s have been transformed by new growth. “We planted cocoa, coconut, timber trees, fruit trees, legume plants, and some biomass trees as well,” says Tilomai Maiava, a manager at Serendi Coco.
This innovative mixture of plants means “there are some long-term cash crops and short-term cash crops,” she explains, giving farmers an ongoing income. Other plants restore nutrients to the soil and create shade for smaller plants to grow. “[CIF’s resilience program] funded all the seedlings, transportation, trainings,” she says.
High-value coconut and cocoa crops should add an estimated US$1,207 in revenue per household per year, by selling them to local buyers like Serendi Coco, and lychee and avocado trees can supplement the family’s own meals. Meanwhile, the replanted land helps reduce flooding and drought.
“It's a win-win situation,” says Iakopo.
Organic farms and lasting benefits
In total, with the additional involvement of a local group supporting women in business, almost 800 farmers were assisted to replant 349 hectares of degraded land. Not only that, but the project helped 2,000 cacao farmers to achieve organic certification, significantly improving their prospects of selling to overseas markets.
Other components of the project helped communities to create watershed management plans, move cattle away from rivers, restore native species to critically-degraded catchment areas, and plant trees around water sources to stabilize erosion and prevent evaporation.
“We've seen a lot of the riparian areas being rehabilitated […] and there's a lot of good growth back into the forest,” says Iakopo. “Those are the lasting impacts for these communities: having sustainable watershed areas and a sustainable water supply in the long run.”
Bolstering resilience across the Pacific
These improvements formed just a tiny percentage of CIF’s investments in Samoa over a 14-year period, which collectively helped to create new standards for flood- and storm-resistant roads, procure high resolution satellite imagery to better map risks and hazards, and enable dozens of community-led resilience projects mainly focused on better access to water—including through installing rainwater harvesting tanks and rehabilitating natural spring pools.
🎥See how CIF delivers resilient watersheds and agroforestry in Samoa:
Other innovative CIF-supported resilience projects across the Pacific include community-managed protection areas and fishing “pauses” in Tonga and Papua New Guinea, that have seen fish stocks rebound. These successes and others from around the world have fed into the design of CIF’s upcoming ARISE Program.
Iakopo is already looking forward to what such projects can teach us. “I think that will be the key for future generations,” he says. “They will see that you are able to live with nature and do development as well as sustainable development, and in that way you become resilient."
