FAO Forestry country profiles - natural woody vegetation

Forest cover map

The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

Map source: Global Forest Resources Assessment 2000, base map: ESRI

The above map is an extract from the Global Forest Cover map produced as part of FRA 2000. Please refer to FRA Working Paper 19 for a background to the production of the map.

American Samoa is a United States territory comprising six humid islands of basaltic volcanic origin in the south-east trade wind belt. These range from a tiny coral atoll (Rose Atoll) to larger mountainous islands (up to 960 m elevation) that support wetland, littoral, lowland, montane, and cloud forests. Tutuila is by far the largest island at 124 km², followed by Ta'u (39 km²), Ofu (4.9 km²), Olosega (3.9 km²) and Aunu'u and Rose (both 2.6 km²); Ta´u has the highest elevation, at 960 m. Many tracts of forest up to 500 m elevation have been altered at least to some degree by subsistence agriculture and other activities. Swains Island is an atoll that is politically part of American Samoa but phytogeographically allied to the Tokelau group. The following description of vegetation types is derived from Mueller-Dombois and Fosberg (1998) and Whistler (1980, 1983, 1984, and 1992). Cole et al. (1988) did an additional survey.