19/09/16
Conservation and tradition to save Hawaiian ecosystem
In Hawaiian legend, Ka’ena Point on the western-most tip of O’ahu island is the ‘jumping off point’ of souls travelling to the afterlife. The area is of deep spiritual significance in local culture.
Inga Vesper
The sand dunes of Ka’ena Point are an important resting place for monk seals and a breeding ground for many types of sea birds. But until their protection began in 1983, they were also a popular driving space for quad bikers.
Inga Vesper
Samuel Gon works as a scientist and cultural adviser at the NGO Nature Conservancy in Hawaii. His goal is to combine the island’s traditional knowledge with modern technologies to improve and guide conservation efforts.
Inga Vesper
The dunes around Ka’ena Point would lose six feet of sand every five years due to quad biking. Now, an iron fence that digs deep into the ground keeps out bikes, as well as animals that prey on the eggs and hatchlings of sea birds.
Inga Vesper
A baby shearwater in its dug-out. When the reserve was established in 1983, not a single nesting pair lived at Ka’ena point. Now, there are a few thousand.
Inga Vesper
Dotted around the reserve are traps to catch animals that prey on shearwater eggs and babies. The ground-nesting birds are easily caught by introduced predators such as cats, mice and mongoose.
Inga Vesper
This is O’ahu’s highest mountain, Ka’ala — believed to be the home of the hula goddess Laka. Hawaiian bog forest still grows here, but has disappeared from the lower regions. Bog forest retains water and is crucial for the island’s freshwater supply.
Inga Vesper
Each new hatchling in the forest is carefully monitored. Gon says that Hawaii’s traditional songs and stories hold a wealth of information about the historic composition of the island’s flora and fauna, which scientists can use in their restoration efforts.
Inga Vesper
Traditionally, only healers and spiritual leaders climbed the mountains to harvest medical plants from the bog forest or make offerings. Now, around 15-20 hikers reach the fragile ecosystem every week. Gon’s goal is to protect sacred natural sites without preventing people from enjoying their beauty and significance.
Inga Vesper
This is Hawaiian mistletoe. Many of the country’s plants have evolved to drop their thorns and poison defenses because, historically, the islands had very few predators and dangerous beetles. Invasive species now find these plants an easy target.
Inga Vesper
Ohia is one of the island’s most sacred trees and features in many stories and sayings. On O’ahu island the plant is being threatened by an invasive guava, and on Big Island a mutated fungus is devastating Ohia trees. Conserving the plant is crucial for Hawaiians — to preserve both nature and culture.
Inga Vesper
By: Inga Vesper
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The islands of Hawaii form a unique and fragile ecosystem thousands of miles away from the nearest landmass. The legends and rituals of the nation’s indigenous people, ancestors of the first Polynesian settlers, are closely connected with the island’s plants, animals and landscape.
Tourism, industrial activity and modern recreation have since depleted Hawaii’s natural ecosystem and introduced invasive species that have caused severe damage. And along with indigenous plants and animals, the country risks losing local knowledge and customs.
Now, conservationists are teaming up with spiritual leaders to save Hawaii’s nature and culture. In many places where such work has taken place, rare species are thriving and fragile ecosystems, such as ancient cloud forests, are stabilising.
For this slideshow, SciDev.Net travelled to two important natural and cultural protection sites on the island of O’ahu: the sand dunes of Ka’ena Point, and the bog forest high on Mount Ka’ala.
The visit was guided by Samuel Okukani’ohi’a Gon, a senior scientist at Hawaii’s Nature Conservacy, and a Kahuna Kakalaleo, a spiritual chanter of traditional Hawaii.