PARENT SESSION
Symposium #23: Relationship, Community, and Intergenerational Innovation: Traditional Ecological Knowledge for Ecosystem Restoration .
Sponsored by ESA Sustainable Biosphere Initiative
Organized by: K Klubnikin, K Rodriguez, J Parrotta, and W Covington
Wednesday, August 7. 1:00 PM to 4:30 PM. Leo Rich Theatre.

Ike Papalua: The ecological restoration of cultural landscapes in dry forest regions of the Hawaiian Islands.

PANG, BENTON KEALII^*,1, SPRINGER, HANNAH KIHALANI², KANAMU, WALTER³, ¹ US Fish and Wildlife Service, Honolulu, Hawaii² Kukuiohiwai, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii³ Living Indigenous Forest Ecosystems, Wailuku, Hawaii

ABSTRACT- Native Hawaiian communities, restoration scientists, and natural resource managers are working cooperatively to restore some of the most biologically and culturally important landscapes in the Hawaiian Islands. At Kaupulehu, on the island of Hawaii, restoration efforts include recovery of the endangered hardwood tree kauila (Colubrina oppositifolila Brogn.ex H. Mann) on lands once belonging to high chiefs. At Kahikinui, Maui, on lands administered by the State Department of Hawaiian Homelands, the Hawaiian homeland community has actively participated in the restoration of the larna (Diospyros sandwicensis A DC. Fosb.) dry forest ecosystem in hopes of preserving vital cultural traditions that once existed in this arid region. At Kawaihae, on the island of Hawaii, is one of the last remaining koaia (Acadia koa A. Gray) forests left in the state but is being restored with the assistance of the community on lands where fishing grounds were exceptionally dense and where important Hawaiian battles were fought. We highlight the ethnobotanical importance of the three native hardwood species at the restoration sites, which are both culturally and biologically significant. Native Hawaiian communities have embraced the restoration efforts because they allow for development and continuation of pre-contact Hawaiian cultural practices, and because through restoration of the ecological communities, the living cultural communities, too, are preserved.

KEY WORDS: Native communities, Restoration, Native trees, Hawaiian culture