Restoring Ecosystems and Rejuvenating Native Hawaiian Traditions in Maui

By fisheries.noaa.gov.

With support from NOAA, Hawaiʻi Land Trust is restoring a 15th-century Native Hawaiian aquaculture site. This human-made ecosystem will provide food for community members and habitat for wildlife while protecting coral reefs offshore.

In partnership with NOAA, the Hawaiʻi Land Trust (HILT) is restoring ecosystems and reestablishing Native Hawaiian connections to the land on Waiheʻe Coastal Dunes and Wetlands Refuge on Maui. NOAA’s Office of Habitat Conservation awarded the Trust $804,000 through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act for this project.

For 400 years, Native Hawaiians maintained a loko iʻa kalo, a fishpond used to raise both fish and taro. Research suggests it may have produced up to 300 pounds of fish per acre and 12,000 pounds of taro, a culturally important root vegetable. This Native Hawaiian practice helped to create an estuary that provided a home for rare birds and nursery grounds for marine fish. It also absorbed much of the sediment flowing downhill from the mountains, protecting coral reefs offshore. Working in remarkable symmetry with nature, Native Hawaiians’ traditional mauka-to-makai (mountain-to-sea) land management techniques ensured the health of the environment and the people who depended on it.

Over the last century, Native Hawaiians lost possession of much of their lands. At Waiheʻe, newcomers drained the estuary, diverted the water to sugarcane and pineapple plantations, and converted the wetlands to a dairy farm. Invasive plants and aggressive grasses imported for grazing cattle crowded out native species.

Students from HILT’s Ahupuaʻa Stewards Program pot native loulu palms in the Waiheʻe nursery for eventual outplanting. Credit: Hawaiʻi Land Trust
However, in the last few decades, Hawaiʻi conservationists have returned to ancient practices to help restore healthy ecosystems. HILT, members from the Waiheʻe and Waiehu communities, and other volunteers are working together. They are restoring water flow to the refuge, removing invasive species, and restoring a loko iʻa kalo using ʻike kūpuna, ancestral knowledge.
read more at fisheries.noaa.gov.