The Resilient Hawaiian Communities (RHC) initiative was a two-year effort with the goal of strengthening the resilience of two Native Hawaiian communities to the effects of environmental change and variability. This initiative was funded by the U.S. Department of the Interior and co-led by staff from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior’s Office of Native Hawaiian Relations, National Park Service Pacific Islands Office, and Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law at the University of Hawai’i Mānoa. The two communities that participated in the RHC Initiative are the Kailapa Community Association on leeward Hawaiʻi Island and Waiehu Kou Phase III Association on windward Maui. Both communities used a variety of approaches, including huakaʻi (field trips and site visits), to engage their residents, surrounding landowners, and other interested parties throughout 2018. At the end of the initiative, they produced written community resilience plans that provide roadmaps for future adaptation activities.

Participants of the Resilient Hawaiian Communities (RHC) initiative community resilience planning process for Kailapa included the Kailapa Community Association (KCA) Executive Director Diane Makaʻala Kānealiʻi, co-liaison Jordan Hollister, Aric Arakaki of the Ala Kahakai National Historic Trails, the KCA board of directors, the community at large, invited subject matter experts, and other partners throughout South Kohala and West Hawai’i.

Waiehu Kou III initiated the planning process by assembling a core team of volunteers consisting of four members. The team was led by Daniel Ornellas, Vice President of the Waiehu Kou III Homestead Association. With a background in urban and regional planning, Ornellas coordinated the approach to the project, which focused on community engagement, and served as the liaison between the community and RHC project management team. Kekai Robinson, with a strong background in Native Hawaiian culture and traditions, supported the process by laying out necessary traditional and cultural foundations necessary for effective community engagement in a Native Hawaiian context. Kanani Kan Hai brought to the table significant experience in community education initiatives and facilitated the planning effort with logistical support. Roy Olivera, current President of the Waiehu Kou III Homestead Association, provided guidance and project oversight for the team.

The RHC initiative co-leads were Deanna Spooner (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), Melia Lane-Kamahele (National Park Service,) Stanton Enomoto (DOI Office of Native Hawaiian Relations), and Kapua Sproat (University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Richardson School of Law, Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law). Project management was provided by Rebecca Soon, Paula MacCutcheon, and Kaʻala Souza of Solutions Pacific. Sean Aronson (Ka Huli Ao) and Wendy Miles (East-West Center) provided legal, scientific, and other technical support.

In addition to the co-leads and project management team, 18 eminent experts participated on the RHC Working Group throughout the life of the project. These included individuals in the fields of Native Hawaiian culture, governance, and law; the sciences; and natural resource management. They represented more than 15 agencies, organizations, and academic institutions including Federal, State, and Local governments, Native Hawaiian organizations, and the University of Hawaiʻi. Many more subject matter experts donated their time and expertise to the communities in a series of workshops and huakaʻi. Mahalo nui loa to all of these invaluable partners.

The title of Kailapa’s resilience plan - ʻEhu ʻEhu I Ka Pono (To Thrive in Balance) - is the bedrock aspiration of our community and our central vision for any planning effort. Following are key excerpts from the plan.

Core Values

Mālama ʻĀina - Resource Management. Focused on land use, freshwater access, and stewardship of our ocean resources. 

Noho Kūʻokoʻa - Self- Sufficiency. Focused on water, land use, and economic development.

Laulima - Community Cohesiveness. Focused on leadership, relational support, growth, and community interaction.

A Path Towards Resiliency

At the outset of the RHC project, KCA members considered how best to address these value statements in the KCRP and beyond. The community participated in setting out its vision for a resilient future and assess which actions would take us there. While more than a dozen areas of concern were considered, three priority areas consistently emerged through both formal and informal discussions: wai, ‘āina, and kanaka.

Priority: WAI

First is wai, our fresh water, both potable and non-potable. If our freshwater supply is ever negatively impacted the result would be devastating. We must ensure that our wai is secure to have any hope for resiliency in our community.

Goals: Secure freshwater Source(s) for the community of Kailapa. Establish Water Infrastructure. Affordable Freshwater. Beneficiary-led and Managed Water System. Sustainable Water Stewardship.

Priority: ʻĀINA

Secondly, is ‘āina, our land. We recognize that when we take care of the land the land takes care of us. Proper thinking, acting, and interacting with our land provides a place and a base to build a foundation of resiliency. Proper land use can provide an abundance of food and economic opportunity.

Goals: Re-connecting to the ʻāina. Protecting the ʻāina. Adaptive Reuse of the ʻāina.

Priority: KĀNAKA

Our third priority area is kānaka, our people, our community members. There can be no resilient community if there is no community. As our people grow and develop, as our relationships are strengthened, our capacity for resiliency increases. When there is harmony within each person and between each person, the ‘āina, and the wai, we believe there is harmony in the community, and there exists true thriving in balance.

Goals: Community Capacity Building. Improved Quality of Life.

Mau A Mau: Continuing Onward

The Kailapa Community Resilience Plan sets forth a vision of how we will move forward as we build this ahupua‘a for the generations to come. But we know our work is far from over, in fact it is really just beginning. This plan is designed to keep evolving through time. Adaptation is a continuous process that is evident in the world around us. Thus, this plan will also adapt through time, but always with the goal of future generations reaping the benefit of our efforts and achieving a truly resilient and self-sustaining Hawaiian community.

To learn more about partnering with the community of Kailapa, please contact Diane Makaʻala Kānealiʻi at dkanealii02@gmail.com.

A resilient Hawaiian community, in light of climate change, is one that has the ability to makaʻala, to see the path that lay ahead and to have the capacity to effectively deal with crisis as it may occur. Furthermore, we envision a resilient Hawaiian community to be one that has access to the basic means of production, namely land, water and a source of energy while maintaining a low carbon footprint. This includes the established right to access and exercise traditional and customary practices in balance with use of modern technology.

Planning Principles

The following planning principles served as a foundation to guide process

implementation and decision making in order to improve strategy development leading toward the collective resiliency of our community:

1. He ʻĀina Aliʻi, He Kānaka Kauwa. Establishing a proper relationship between man and the environment is key to achieving climate change adaptation and mitigation;
2. All great conversion begin with a good relationship;
3. A wholistic understanding of the planning region is necessary to formulate efficient and effective adaptation strategies;
4. Relationship between land and community can be strengthened through both conventional research and analysis as well as presence on the land using all of our senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch) for observational study;
5. Access to natural and cultural resources contributes to a flourishing sense of place;
6. Allow for prudent interaction between the target audience and the subject matter being investigated and do not rush to conclusions, take the time to digest gathered information and to contemplate observations;
7. Stakeholders need to recognize that all points of view have value and team work is important;
8. Stakeholders being directly affected by proposed actions need to be directly involved in decision-making;
9. Strive for consensus in decision-making that affects the community;
10. Resiliency initiatives need to be built from within to increase community “ownership” of its kuleana;
11. Employ the “precautionary principle” when uncertainty exists;
12. Focus more on adaptation actions that respond to priority risks and opportunities and less on mitigation efforts;
13. Target actions with multiple benefits;
14. Consider phased implementation strategies to deal with capacity issues; and
15. Proactively coordinate and support partnerships between stakeholders.

Planning Process

Following the process below facilitates the adaptive capacity of a community defined as improving “the potential, capability, or ability of built, natural, and human systems to adapt to impacts of climate change and variability with minimal potential damage or cost.”

Traditional Protocol

Traditional and customary protocol was used to set the tone for each of our events in order to recognize the importance of our natural resource areas and sacred spaces within our community. Purposeful research and thought went into planning each huakaʻi. The moon calendar was reviewed to identify appropriate plantings, hoʻokupu were prepared and appropriate oli were either selected or composed to honor the purpose and intent of each day’s journey.

Strategies

Strategy #1:  Advocate and Facilitate Drainage Way System Improvements

Goal: Ensure effective conveyance of storm water 

Strategy #2:  Prudent Land Use and Management of Vacant Hawaiian Home Lands  

Goal: Reduce Fuel Load for Wild Fire and Increase Highest and Best Use of Vacant Lands

To learn more about partnering with the community of Waiehu Kou III, please contact Daniel Ornellas at daniel.l.ornellas@hawaii.gov.