Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
1. Description. Non-technical summary. The Puuhonua Kauluwehi project aims to develop a rapid response to the recent Maui wildfires by collaboratively establishing biocultural refuges supporting the cultivation of native plants to accelerate landscape-scale agroecological resilience, food security and community well-being strategies. Puuhonua Kauluwehi is a Hawaiian phrase describing regenerative agroecosystem areas that provide shelter for native vegetation, attract native birds and insects, and serve as a source of thriving launching points to revegetate the landscape through community engagement. Similar to other biocultural refuge models such as "chinampa-refuges" in Mexico, Local Biodiversity Heritage Sites in India, community gardens in the global north, sacred forests in sub-Saharan Africa, and the traditional local ecological knowledge systems of Hawaii, biocultural refuges serve a critical environments to preserve threatened species, endemic genetics, ecosystem services, indigenous knowledge, and the culture of sites threatened by natural disasters. In Hawaii, establishing biocultural refuges is even more critical as the unique ecosystems of the islands continue to come under threat from invasive species, drought, commercial development, and lack of ecosystem management and are more at risk due to the dependence on imported response and aid resources from the mainland as demonstrated by the devastating impact of the Maui wildfires in August 2023. Research indicates that the annual burn area across all four counties of Hawaii has increased by 300% within the past few decadeswith 26% of the state covered by fire-prone invasive grasses.By creating a network of biocultural refuges, the project will cultivate new and existing sites as native seed orchards to feed local seed banks and seek to address the crucial bottleneck in the supply chains of plants for native forest and biocultural restoration projects. While Hawaii has pledged to plant and protect 100 million trees by 2030, currently, nearly all native plant material is sourced from wild populations. Developing refuges of native trees, shrubs, and groundcovers would provide an easily accessible and stable source of seeds for planned and anticipated large-scale agroforest restoration projects for wildfire recovery efforts, alleviating pressure on and disturbance of wild plant populations. Locating a model refuge on the UHMC campus and other project partner sites also creates opportunities for much-needed research on native plant growth rates, flowering, fruiting, and seed production, physiological variation, water use, and nutrient requirements, information that can support more effective planting, planning, and care of agroforestry and restoration projects. With 2,100 acres burned in the Lahaina wildfire, there is an opportunity to immediately initiate planning, replanting and reforestation of the burn zone areas that harbored the invasive grasses fueling the wind-spread fire and initiate restoration of the once thriving watershed ecosystem. Long-term benefits of these initiatives include groundwater rechargingto nurture restoration of the region's original wetlands, lowland flats and agroforestry systems such as Lahaina's culturally significant, ancient breadfruit grove Mala Ulu o Lele. This proposal responds within 30 days to the immediate need for UHMC and coalition partners to participate in the Lahaina Treescape Restoration Project initiated by government, non-profit and private entity stakeholders in September 202311 and outlines a timeline with rapid response activities and deliverables within 90 days. The overarching goal of this Integrated Strengthening Grant proposal is to effectively increase community stakeholders access to environmental, human health, and socioeconomic benefits in disadvantaged communities, broaden youth and adult engagement and education in agroecosystem planning and restoration, increase local capacity for agroforestry restoration across Hawaii's landscapes, and enhance awareness of the best practices of biocultural refuges to improve resilience to climate change and extreme events like the on-going threat of wildfires.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
100%
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
This project aims to disrupt the trajectory of forest decline across the Hawaiian Islands by strategically establishing urban kipuka as biocultural oases supporting the cultivation of professionals and plants to accelerate landscape scale ecological restoration. Kipuka is a Hawaiian term for fragments of old-growth forest that have been surrounded by lava flows and provide refuge for native vegetation, attract native birds and insects, and serve as a source of propagules to eventually revegetate the lava-covered landscape. We envision urban kipuka as hubs that effectively increase equitable access to urban tree canopy and associated human health, environmental and economic benefits in disadvantaged communities, broaden community engagement in local urban forest planning, enhance awareness of best practices that improve urban forest resilience to pests and climate change and extreme events, and increase local capacity for forest restoration across varied landscapes. The metaphor of cultural kipuka is well-established for rural communities that persist in a landscape of change. For the urban setting, we flip the concept of kipuka as ecological remnants to envision the human-aided re-emergence of forest groves in landscapes of pavement. In this setting, human energy and plant life rather than lava are the critical disruptive forces. The decades-long development of urban cultural kipuka supporting Hawaiian cultural and community revitalization through Aina-based (place-based) educational auwai (waterways) provide a model for the parallel cultivation of social capacity to restore forests across urban lands they once occupied.Objective 1: Extend the applied research at the existing Kauluwehi Biocultural Restoration Project model to recommend solutions for agroecology system resilience for Maui communities facing wildfire disaster events.1.1) Inventory and map priority impact areas to complement existing tree canopy and plant datasets to collect data on agroecosystem site growth and health, pest and disease, and biocultural indicators to compare to climate and caretaking effort.1.2) Quantify the current baseline of agroecosystem services (heat mitigation, biodiversity, rain/flood water infiltration, cultural aesthetics, access to native species) within priority wildfire impact locations and related resource sites. Develop a website with a coalition contact list, educational resources and links to share indicator datasets.1.3) Produce research poster for presentation at relevant stakeholder conference (local or statewide or national).Objective 2: Develop strategies to ensure all children, youth, and adults have access to abundant local food during and after wildfire disasters through a coalition building of seed orchard, seed bank, nursery and food hub partners.2.1) Coordinate engagement with community stakeholders and identify priority projects for partner engagement to launch a coalition.2.2) Produce online guides for locale-specific restoration initiatives that are reflective of community needs and values including communication strategies, tools and technologies, food supply logistics, and climate-smart practices (via PDF distribution to stakeholders and project website).Objective 3: Design extension and integrated community education initiatives to address the health and well-being of children, youth, and adults affected by wildfire disasters.3.1) Develop curricula for each of the three training programs that integrate the principles of ecosystem services, native plant conservation, protection and maintenance to improve community resilience to climate impacts such as wildfire disasters.3.2) Provide community trainings engaging neighborhoods and families in agroecology systems restoration and maintenance through knowledge of ecosystem elements including native seeds, establishing native seed orchards and seedbanks, improving soil health, and reducing fire risk.3.3) Engage 300 participants from wildfire impacted communities in three work-based training programs: a) ?ina Data Stewards (40 youth and adult students), b) ?ina Data Interns (4 adult students), c) Kauluwehi Community Stewards (256 youth and adult participants).
Project Methods
Methodology. The project will integrate an indigenous knowledge framework including ike kupuna (ancestral knowledge observations) and ike aina (careful observations of the land) with a participatory mapping methodology for GIS data collection, inventory and analysis that creates a holistic resource for the Maui community impacted by the wildfires. Ike aina kupuna-based education is a Hawaiian ancestral knowledge framework drawing on Hawaiian cultural practices, including kilo (critically observing environmental changes), kanu (plant and harvesting laau), oli (chants), mele (songs), kaao (ancient stories), and kuahu (altar) to more effectively engage local students in STEM education(Irvine, 2021). The project will integrate Ike aina kupuna with a participatory mapping methodology that is sensitive to location-specific community values, perspectives, and the future planning for the restoration of the wildfire-impacted lands using the Explore, Explain, and Predict/Modelthat engages non-academic community and student participants in the Explore phase, and the academic team and advisory council members engaging in the Explain and Predict/Model phases to produce integrated education and applied research products.