§410qq Findings and Purpose

Summary

Protect and preserve the tropical forest, nearby reefs, and the cultural and archaeological places in American Samoa, keep the habitat for flying foxes, and let people visit and enjoy these special resources as long as they stay protected. Lawmakers found that tropical forests are shrinking around the world. They hold 50 percent of the world’s plant and animal species, help science, medicine, and farming, and produce much of the planet’s oxygen. Losing them causes extinctions, less biodiversity, fewer possible new medicines and crops, and higher carbon dioxide that changes the global climate. The forest in American Samoa is one of the last undisturbed paleotropical forests and the largest such forest under United States control. It shelters one of the last groups of Pacific flying foxes, which pollinate many Samoan plants. There is also important archaeological evidence there, and the people of American Samoa want part of the forest protected as a national park.