The Nature Conservancy in Hawaii - What's Being Said

We Want To Hear From You!

We extend an open invitation to anyone who would like to have a dialogue with us about our Forest Recovery Project, or other aspects of our conservation programs.

Please contact us via email forestrecoveryproject@tnc.org or call Evelyn Wight in Honolulu at (808) 587-6277.

Forest Recovery Project

Learn more about the Conservancy's Forest Recovery Project animal control initiative.

Pua'a (pigs) - From Traditional to Modern

Feral pig, sus scrofa

Read a cultural analysis on Pua'a (pigs), From Traditional to Modern, co-authored by Native Hawaiian cultural experts.

Hawai'i community members speak about the decline of Hawaii’s native forests and the Conservancy’s Forest Recovery Project:

John Culliney

I come from the subsistence lifestyle

too and we need to balance the needs of hunters as well as the entire community and our future generations. I learned a lot from working with the Conservancy and seeing the damage that gets done up there and the big size of the animal populations. I learned about all the things that damage our forest and the importance of our watershed.

From my experience there are more than enough animals out there, but [there are] too much animals in certain areas on the island and they need to be controlled. With the erosion situation, taking care of those animals helps out everybody in the long run. The Conservancy is working in areas where people don’t do much hunting anyway, it’s pretty remote. Working with them, I got to see these are really good people who are sincere about what they are doing. They are community people, and they are worried about and love this island just as much as anybody.

These people [Prohunt] who are coming from outside will leave knowledge in the hands of our people, we are going to benefit from that. If you stand strong and firm on what you believe in, it’s not a problem. You can’t get everyone on your side, but if people know the facts, they will understand we need to protect our watershed. When things are harder to do it’s a good thing because it shows that we are working very hard at doing the right thing, you can only make things better from there.

- Kanoho Helm, born and raised Hawaiian Moloka‘i resident, fisher, hunter, and father of three

Charles Burrows

I am Charles Pe'ape'a Makawalu Burrows, a Kanaka Maoli, whose kupuna and 'ohana are from Moloka'i. I am also president of 'Ahahui Mālama i ka Lōkahi. The ‘Ahahui is a Hawaiian conservation organization, and has always advocated for the conservation of Hawaii's wao kele ecosystems by supporting efforts to reduce or eliminate feral pigs in those areas whether they be on Moloka'i or on other islands. We're not against Hawaiian or local islanders' food subsistence in hunting for pigs and the axis deer as long as they are in already disturbed alien forested habitat. We would encourage local hunters on Moloka'i to cooperate with the Nature Conservancy in eradicating the European/Polynesian hybrid pigs from Molokai's last remaining fragile montane ecosystems ....

The project TNC is planning will enlist the help of conservationists from New Zealand to test new ways to control animals in the core,native-dominated forest. It is an area hunters rarely go, because the forest is so intact and thick, and the animals so infrequently found. The effort will be to see if those small areas can be rid of animals and with the kokua of the Moloka'i Pig Hunters Association, salvage where possible the carcasses for food -- it is not an island-wide eradication. That misconception is promulgated to no one's benefit. The work is planned on private conservation lands only. Sport hunting will go on for Moloka'i.

Put simply, there will always be pigs, goats and deer on Moloka'i, but unless we take strong action now, there may not always be a native forest. I encourage pig hunters with families on Moloka'i to raise pigs in their homestead areas the way that our kupuna did in ancient times.

- Charles Pe‘ape‘a Makawalu Burrows, EdD
President of ‘Ahahui Mālama I ka Lōkahi

The above quote is an excerpt. Click here to read the full text of Dr. Burrows' letter.

Ed Lindsey

Hawaiian culture is intimately connected to all native plants. When you talk about the native plants you are talking about Hawaiians, they are us. The plants have a lot to teach us; they are our children and our kupuna. Invasive plants, insects and feral animals are threatening native forests with near extinction.

Saving the forest is important to the survival of our culture. What is a sailing canoe without the koa tree? What is tapa without the plants that give it the colors? What is health without the plants that give the medicines? What is Hawaiian philosophy without the 'ōhi'a lehua? What is fishing without the ahuhu or the koa'ia? What is respect to the Hawaiian religion without kauwila trees? And what is the Hawaiian hale without the pili grass or the lolu palms?

We are at a critical period in time. If we don't take action now, we'll lose what's left. The feral animals must be eliminated to save our native forests. Hunters also need access to animals for self sufficiency - but the two cannot mix. Native forests need to be protected with all the passion that is necessary to get the job done. And hunting needs to be available in other areas. It's not I/me/mine - it has to be us working together for the greater good of Hawaiian culture and a win-win solution.

I recognize the importance of self-sufficiency and getting the meat, but we must protect our native forests too. As far as bringing in Prohunt, I don't see any problem with that. We have brought outsiders in throughout our history and learned from them. The paniolo culture is a good example of that. The Conservancy has my support in whatever needs to be done.

- Ed Lindsey, President, Maui Cultural Lands, a grassroots land trust organization in Maui whose mission is education, archaelogical stabilization and reforestation

John Culliney

Many of the unique plants and animals of our Islands

have already become extinct as a result of centuries of human impact. Since the first arrival of Polynesian canoes, Hawai‘i has been a venue of accelerating extinction and today leads the United States in the rate of permanent loss of native plants and animals. The kama`âina organisms that still survive should be thought of as precious antiques wrought by nature over millennia of evolutionary artistry. But Hawaii has become an alien world. Although our landscapes often appear richly diverse and lush with tropical vegetation, we are surrounded by living things from nearly everywhere else in the world except Hawaii.

The current state of the Islands' ecosystems is dismal. Today, native Hawaiian marine life, freshwater stream life, forests, and other parts of our living heritage are in peril from overwhelming impacts, and Hawai`i is losing its natural identity. This is why it is so important to protect and sustain what remains of Hawaii's true nature, and this is most critical in the case of Hawaiian forests -- those consisting of plants and animals whose ancestors preceded people to these islands.

In recent times, nothing has harmed Hawaii's forests more than feral grazing mammals. The surviving Hawaiian species of our forests are a vital treasure of great scientific interest, of great value in the world's heritage of biodiversity, of significant value to Hawaiian culture, and of unique beauty and graceful presence. Without intense care and effort, what is natural about Hawai‘i will soon pass into history. Efforts like the Conservancy's Forest Recovery Project are necessary to protect what is left of Hawaii's flora and fauna in their remaining native settings, instead of in a greenhouse, aquarium, or encyclopedia.

- John L. Culliney, February 2008 Professor of Biology, Hawaii Pacific University, former Education Director/Haunama Bay, author of Islands in a Far Sea, the Fate of Nature in Hawai`i, A Native Hawaiian Garden: How to Grow and Care for Island Plants, and The Forests of the Sea

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Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): © Phil Spalding III (dying wiliwili tree, receding forest Maui); © Phil Spalding III (Aerial of erosion damage, Kamalo-Kapualei, Moloka'i); © John Culliney photo.