Live from CSO: Coastal Management in American Samoa

October 4, 2020

Coastal Management in American Samoa

On this episode, we sit down with Sandra Fuimaono-Lutu, the Deputy Director of the Resource Management Division for American Samoa's Department of Commerce, and her "left and right hands," Rienette Thompson-Niko. Together, these two women lead coastal management for the  55,000 people who live on the seven islands of American Samoa.  We discuss how coastal management is done in American Samoa and how Sandra is working to spread the word that a "healthy coast is a wealthy coast" and how to integrate indigenous culture and community practices into coastal management.  Get the unique perspective from the South Pacific Islands on this episode of the American Shoreline Podcast.

Show Transcription
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Peter Ravella & Tyler Buckingham

Peter and Tyler joined forces in 2015 and from the first meeting began discussing a project that would become Coastal News Today and the American Shoreline Podcast Network. At the time, Peter and Tyler were coastal consultants for Pete’s firm, PAR Consulting, LLC. In that role, they worked with coastal communities in Texas, Florida, and North Carolina, engaged in grant writing, coastal project development, shoreline erosion and land use planning, permitting, and financial planning for communities undertaking big beach restoration projects. Between and among their consulting tasks, they kept talking and kept building the idea of CNT & ASPN. In almost every arena they worked, public engagement played a central role. They spent thousands of hours talking with coastal stakeholders, like business owners, hotel operators, condo managers, watermen, property owners, enviros, surfers, and fishermen. They dived deep into the value, meaning, and responsibility for the American shoreline, segment-by-segment. Common threads emerged, themes were revealed, differences uncovered. There was a big conversation going on along the American shoreline! But, no place to have it. That's where CNT and ASPN were born.