Through case study analysis of community-based resource management systems our research gradually contributes to broader theory on how social and ecological systems adapt as well as to understanding of how responsibilities underpin rights and relationships with natural resources. Though I work primarily within the context of rural Hawaiʻi communities, I support student research in other parts of the Pacific and North America including Fiji, the Pacific Northwest, Arizona, and Puerto Rico. We use mixed methods including interviews, focus groups, surveys, mapping, participant observation, and various ecological monitoring techniques along with document analysis of sources ranging from legal and policy documents to Hawaiian language newspapers and moʻolelo (stories). Much of our research is participatory and requires considerable time to build relationships within a given study site. Community members help to design research, develop questions, collect data, conduct analysis, and share findings. We ask “How are social-ecological systems, particularly local level management, restored?” We consider this broad question from multiple perspectives:
- How do people use, care for and make decisions about natural resources at the local level?
- How can ancestral ways of using and caring for natural resources offer models for contemporary management approaches?
- How can communities monitor the health and abundance of resources?
- How do local level management systems adapt to changes in demographics, culture, and resource health?
- How is knowledge of resources being transmitted across generations?
- What are key enabling conditions encountered in collaborative management?
- What are some key challenges and how are they being overcome?
- What lessons do these cases offer for future community and collaborative management efforts?
Community-based Watershed Monitoring and Abundance Assessment
This integrated extension and research project seeks to develop culturally grounded, community-based monitoring systems that advance capability to assess the effects of human activities, local level policies and management, as well as environmental changes on coastal and estuary resources in order to adapt management and enhance watershed resource health. This work includes water quality monitoring and analysis of nitrogen isotopes in limu to identify potential land based sources of nutrients. Another project focuses on coastal resource health in the Hāʻena CBSFA. Led by Hāʻena community members, Nā Kilo ʻĀina and NREM graduate Emily Cadiz, this project offers a toolkit of approaches communities can use to observe changes in their surrounding environment holistically, including gonad analysis of catch to create seasonal spawning calendars, and opihi monitoring.
Hōʻahu to set aside for the Future, Assessing Changes in Land Use, Ownership and Governance
Funded by National Science Foundation, Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability (SEES), 2013 – 2017
This study examined the relationship between people living in one bounded, rural area in Hawai`i and local level natural resources which have fed local families for generations. The research team used state and county records, archives, historic maps, Hawaiian language newspapers, and forty oral histories with elders from the area to map place names, stories and land use from 1860-1920, property values and land ownership changes from 1850-present. The study enhanced understanding of the socio-cultural effects of fragmentation of land and changes in land ownership and demographics by visually illustrating these changes over time. It illustrates the value and types of insights which can come from layering archival and Indigenous language research, insights from kūpuna interviews, GIS mapping, and land use data.
Kalihikai and Wanini – Mālama Anini
In 2015, a team of UH Mānoa graduate students and Haleleʻa community research assistants conducted research on an area known as Anini. Anini is stretch of coastline encompassed by one of the three largest barrier reefs in Hawaiʻi, which includes three ahupuaʻa, Kalihiwai, Kalihikai and the ili of Wanini, in Hanalei. The area was known for its abundance of limu, and nearshore fish species and historically supported a small, close knit fishing community of Hawaiian families. The coast has undergone rapid changes in demographics, with most long time families having to move away due to escalating land values and development of second homes, as well as in ecology, with degradation of the coral reef. More than 40 interviews were conducted with kupuna or community elders who used to reside in the area. Additional interviews were conducted with elected officials, scientists, conservationists, land use experts, planning department directors, and others who could provide a more macro level perspective. The results were then shared with the community members who participated in the study through dissemination of reports and a community celebration and presentation attended by over 150 community members.
Ahupuaʻa and Konohiki Management
This ongoing research aims to enhance understanding of ancestral Hawaiian models of local-level land and resource management. This work includes Hawaiian language archival research on the konohiki system as well as on moʻolelo (stories) and place names of particular areas. We consider how the concept of ahupuaʻa has been applied in different communities over time, how boundaries and use have shifted under different governance and how the role of local level fisheries managers also shifted over time. This study serves as a model for community engaged research that enhances community ability to care for natural resources locally, providing more nuanced understanding of local and indigenous systems as a foundation for contemporary approaches.
ʻĀina Based Education
Another area of my research focuses on ʻāina-based (or place-based) education programs, assessing the effectiveness of programs in elementary and secondary schools, as well as community colleges and universities focused on enhancing students’ learning about and investment in caring for their home environments.
Community-based Collaborative Management
I have researched Community-based Subsistence Fishing Areas (CBSFAs) for over ten years. Mainly, I have worked with the community of Hāʻena, Kauaʻi to study their lengthy collaborative rule making process of becoming the stateʻs first permanent CBSFA in August 2015. Currently, we are expanding this work to other communities who request our efforts in documenting key lessons which may facilitate community management efforts. This research also contributes to broader understanding of subsistence sharing networks, common-pool and collaborative resource management. This research is conducted in collaboration with KUA’s E Alu Pū Network of Hawaiʻi communities.
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