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Good Information and Best Practices

Photo: TKC’s Caroline Neary (center) helps Citizen Science volunteers to calibrate water quality monitoring equipment.

The Kohala Center's (TKC) work at Kahalu‘u Bay continues to enrich the health of our ‘āina (land), our water, and our community. TKC’s ReefTeach Programs now impact over 400,000 visitors per year—teaching them how to enjoy the bay while protecting its fragile coral reef environment. Each year, ReefTeach engages more than 2,000 island students, who help us to share these important and positive lessons with their friends and families. In 2009, at the request of community members and ReefTeach volunteers, we launched the Citizen Science water quality monitoring program at Kahalu‘u Bay. Our Citizen Scientists, an enthusiastic group of trained volunteers, conduct regular sampling of nitrate and nitrite, ortho-phosphate, ammonia, and silicate analytes at sites around the bay. The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai‘i Authority supports the Citizen Science program by directing analysis of the samples. Results can then be shared with agencies responsible for managing resources at the bay, such as the Department of Health.

In 2010, the Center for Conservation Research and Training at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UH CCRT), the Hawai‘i Institute for Marine Biology (UH HIMB), the University of Redlands, and Stanford University joined our ‘ohana (family) to enhance the health of the bay. These partners are collaborating with TKC on a three-year project funded by the National Science Foundation’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (NSF EPSCoR) to work with the Kahalu‘u community to improve the local capacity and infrastructure needed to address imminent climate change impacts on Kona’s water resources. The “model system” established in Kahalu‘u will be transferrable to other island communities to help them sustainably manage the social-ecological resources contained within their ahupua‘a (watersheds). In time, we hope to create a comprehensive learning environment at Kahalu‘u, in which the health of the ahupua‘a can be enhanced by good information and by best practices—both Hawaiian and Western. Read "A Mountain to Sea Approach" on the Back Page to learn more.



We Need to Eat

Photo: Weighing sweet potatoes harvested at Mala‘ai: The Culinary Garden at Waimea Middle School. In 2009, six-thousand pounds of food were harvested from Mala‘ai Garden and eaten by students or given away to the school community. Photo courtesy of Mala‘ai Garden.

The Kohala Center is working to bring the importance of agriculture into the consciousness of our policy makers. Agriculture currently accounts for just 3% of the State’s gross product, which can seem insignificant compared to the visitor industry. Yet we all need to eat. And so we need to pay attention to agriculture and allocate resources to the land, water, and farmers who can assure us of a secure food supply. —Betsy Cole, TKC Deputy Director

The County of Hawai‘i Agriculture Development Plan is a work in progress. Over the past two years, The Kohala Center has been working under contract with the County Department of Research and Development to update the Plan to provide an accurate picture of existing agricultural resources in the County and to craft recommendations to move the County toward greater food sustainability and more profitable agricultural exports.

More than 85% of the food consumed on the island is imported and, therefore, subject to interruptions in supply due to natural or manmade disasters. Yet the potential to grow more of our own food is huge—with Hawai‘i Island accounting for roughly 60% of the State’s agricultural lands. “Hawai‘i Island will play a major role in food sustainability for the consumption centers on O‘ahu and throughout the state,” says Matthew Loke, of the Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture (DOA).

Photo: Miss Mundon's 6th grade Social Studies class preparing local fruit for a class tasting. Photo courtesy of Mala‘ai: The Culinary Garden at Waimea Middle School.

Residents who attended the 13 public meetings held around Hawai‘i Island as part of the process to update the County Ag Plan agree that the island needs to develop stronger internal (local) and external (export) markets for its agricultural products. Stakeholders also agreed that both subsistence and commercial agriculture are vital to shift the island toward greater food security.

Building a local food system can also play a role in improving the health of the island’s people. It makes sense that increasing access to fresh local fruits and vegetables could positively impact the nutrition of island residents. What is less obvious is how an expansion of the agriculture sector of our economy might affect other sectors, such as transportation, housing, environmental quality. To better understand how an increase in our local food and bio-energy supply might affect the health of individuals and communities on the island, The Kohala Center is conducting a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) of the County Ag Plan. This HIA is being funded through The Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts. Stakeholders from around the island attended a two-day training in June to begin the 18-month HIA process. The goal is that by December 2011, the HIA will help policy makers to understand the health implications of the various priorities articulated in the Plan—which range from recommendations like expanding commercial production of local fruits and vegetables to increasing the availability of on-farm housing. The intent is that the HIA will make explicit the connections between recommended actions and the health of the people who live on the island.

Learn more about “The Health Impact Project.” To read the County of Hawai‘i Agricultural Development Plan, visit http://www.kohalacenter.org/agplan.html.



A Statewide Seed Initiative

Photo: Threshing Jacob's Cattle Beans. Photo courtesy of Mala‘ai: The Culinary Garden at Waimea Middle School.

Finding new and innovative ways to work together across vast areas of the mid-Pacific will bring us closer to the development of locally based models of food self-reliance. As we seek paths toward a more food self-reliant future, we recognize the importance of seed in the agricultural cycle of production. —Nancy Redfeather, Coordinator of Seed Symposium and Hawai‘i Island Seed Exchange

A group of 110 farmers and gardeners from across the state attended the "Hua Ka Hua - Restore Our Seed" Public Seed Symposium on April 16–19, 2010, at the Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort in Kailua-Kona, Hawai‘i. The Kohala Center, the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and Hilo, and the Organic Seed Alliance and its university partners collaborated to create and host this symposium—the first of its kind in the state of Hawai‘i.

This landmark event renewed relationships between university researchers and professors, experts from the mainland, and farming and gardening communities across the state. The event also underscored the fundamental relationship between farmers and gardeners and on-farm seed production. As a result of the conversations which began at the Seed Symposium, a Statewide Seed Working Group has now emerged.

The Kohala Center is pleased to unveil the Hawai‘i State Public Seed Initiative Web site, which will serve as the "home base" for statewide communication and as a source of knowledge about growing, selecting, drying, and saving high-quality open-pollinated seed. Some of the resources housed at this Web site include:

To read a summary and view a video of each of the recent Seed Symposium presentations, visit http://kohalacenter.org/publicseedinitiative/presentations.html.



Student Leaders on Global Environmental Issues

Photo: Participants from Malaysia at Kahalu‘u Bay.

Picking your favorite piece in a box of mixed nuts is something awfully hard to do. I feel like choosing the most important lesson I’ve learned throughout this Hawai‘i Island trip is just like choosing my favorite nut. But if I REALLY had to choose, it would be learning that it takes an individual like me to create a big change in my community. If we just know how much of a catalyst we can be, then all of us would be pushed to motion. And when we are all in motion, then the world will inevitably continue to turn and flourish. —William Robert Lasi, Physics Major, Silliman University Dumaguete City, Philippines

A group of 20 undergraduate scholars from Burma, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand spent a week on Hawai‘i Island in June, as part of an innovative environmental leadership program. The Study of the United States Institute (SUSI) for Student Leaders on Global Environmental Issues is hosted by the East-West Center with funding from the Study of the U.S. Branch in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The Institute is hosted by the East-West Center in collaboration with more than fifty organizations, including the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Environmental Center, Yale University’s Global Environmental Governance Project, The Nature Conservancy, and The Kohala Center. Participants represented a broad range of backgrounds, including students of medicine, climate scientists, marine biologists, renewable energy specialists, and information technology experts. Key goals of the institute were to provide transformative learning experiences for participants and to link participants with U.S professionals to develop practical solutions to shared environmental challenges, such as food, energy, and water security.

Photo: Participants from the Philippines at the steaming Halema‘uma‘u Crater overlook.

Here on Hawai‘i Island the students visited and met with leaders from several field research sites, including Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, Ka‘ūpūlehu Dry Forest, Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden, Kahalu‘u Bay, and the Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center. The Kohala Center facilitated the Hawai‘i Island module of the program, which explored complex issues, such as:

Read more about the program at http://www.kohalacenter.org/pdf/EnvironmentalLeadershipProgramMediaRelease-062210.pdf. Read what program participants thought about their week on Hawai‘i Island in "Lessons and Memories from Hawai‘i Island" on the Back Page.



A Metamorphosis in Our Schools

Photo: 2009–10 Frameworks teacher cohort and project administrators: (bottom row, far left) Ray Mizuba, Principal of Kaumana Elementary School; (top row, far left) Richard Crowe, Professor of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo; (bottom row, second from left) Darrell Nekoba, School Renewal Specialist for the Hilo-Laupahoehoe-Waiakea Complex Area; and (bottom row, fourth from left) Pascale Creek Pinner, Frameworks Project Curriculum Coordinator.

Each of the teachers in this room is making a difference. You are creating opportunities for kids and awakening their interest in science. This kind of experience can help to catapult them into the wider world, where they may go on to discover a cure for cancer, solve global environmental challenges, or find meaningful employment right here in fields such as astronomy. The influence you have on children when they are just 7 or 8 years old can make a huge difference in their future lives, by inspiring them to aspire to better jobs. —Roberta Chu, President, TKC Board of Directors

On June 1, twenty-three teachers from three elementary schools in the Hilo School Complex gathered in celebration of Year One of a three-year project to transform the way science is taught at their schools. The Frameworks for Success in Science project, a National Science Foundation Math Science Partnership project funded locally through a grant from the State Department of Education, has much to celebrate. The project is a three-prong approach to enhance collaboration, cooperation, and articulation of curriculum amongst schools in the Hilo Complex—and to build professional development communities of teachers led by high-powered science specialists utilizing state-of-the-art tools to deliver outstanding hands-on science instruction to students. Children in grades K–6 explored topics ranging from what characteristics define living beings, to the various states of matter, to the movements of the bodies in our solar system. By Year Three, the Frameworks Project will engage about 540 students at all six elementary schools in the Hilo Complex and about 40–50 elementary school teachers.

TKC is a partner in the Frameworks Project, providing technical assistance and advisory oversight. “The Kohala Center is committed to supporting our K–12 schools,” says Executive Director Matt Hamabata, “so that someday soon our island students will be qualified to assume the jobs we are creating.” Read "The Ball Is Rolling" on the Back Page.



Lessons in Sustainability

Photo: Students measure their own global footprint in a workshop led by HPA’s Dr. Bill Wiecking. Photo by Deanna Evans, HPA Public Relations Coordinator.

More than 80 high school students from around the island and across the state attended the third annual Student Congress on Sustainability at Hawai‘i Preparatory Academy (HPA) in June. The mission of the Student Congress is “to celebrate, inform, and cultivate student-driven environmental initiatives addressing local, national, and global issues.” Students agreed that the Congress opened their eyes to new technologies and potential solutions to the challenges ahead. "We didn't learn the way you do in an 'average' school,” said Jordan Leong of Baldwin High School on Maui. “Everyone taught each other so we learned more.” And students departed with new enthusiasm to share the lessons they learned with their peers back at their home campuses.

I gained a lot of new ideas for the La Pietra Green Club from the conference. I'd like to:
1. Calculate our carbon footprint as a school and try to better it so it will be more sustainable.
2. Take a survey of where students think the dirtiest beach on the island is and do a beach clean up there.
3. Go on natural hikes and trails and learn about the plants and animals living there.
4. Perhaps do a web conference with other Green Clubs on Hawai‘i Island or Maui so our clubs can see what the other is doing.
5. Put in a green tip of the week into our daily announcements.
6. Present at an all-school assembly about all the things we learned at HPA and other environmental information. —Mari Cobb, junior at La Pietra, O‘ahu

Read "Teaching Each Other" on the Back Page to learn more.



A New Historical Context

Photo: Sydney Iaukea (right) following this summer’s UH Mānoa graduation ceremony with her mother, Liane Iaukea (left), who received her bachelor’s degree.

University of Hawaiʻi doctoral scholar and Mellon Hawaiʻi Fellow Sydney Iaukea has signed a contract with University of California Press to publish a book based on her 2008 doctoral dissertation, “E Pa‘a ‘Oukou: Holding and Remembering Hawaiian Understanding of Place and Politics.”

Iaukea’s manuscript, to be published in mid-2011, examines land laws and land issues of Hawaiʻi’s Territorial era. It is Iaukea’s personal narrative set within a historical context. Iaukea references records from the First District Court and the Bureau of Conveyances, as well as unpublished writings by her great-great-grandfather, Curtis Piehu Iaukea, which she found in the Hawaiʻi State Archives. From 1885 to 1940, Curtis Iaukea held more than 40 political positions in both the Hawaiian Kingdom and the Territorial Government in Hawai‘i.

University of Hawaiʻi doctoral scholar and Mellon Hawaiʻi Fellow Sydney Iaukea has signed a contract with University of California Press to publish a book based on her 2008 doctoral dissertation, “E Pa‘a ‘Oukou: Holding and Remembering Hawaiian Understanding of Place and Politics.”

Most of the history taken from this era is not in the words of our kūpuna (Hawaiian elders), but from an outside perspective. Reading how the kūpuna wrote about the Territory gives us a much better insight because it’s coming from the political actors of the time. —Sydney Iaukea

Read "Filling in the Missing Pieces" on the Back Page to learn more.




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