The Office of Hawaiian Affairs recently awarded Hawai‘i Forest Institute with $172,262 for two years to tend, honor and grow a place of peace and safety for the native dryland lama forest of Ka‘upulehu.
The Office of Hawaiian Affairs recently awarded Hawai‘i Forest Institute with $172,262 for two years to tend, honor and grow a place of peace and safety for the native dryland lama forest of Ka‘upulehu.
The land grant funding will assist the institute with its “Aloha ‘Aina. Aloha Ka‘upulehu. Aloha Wao Lama.” program to foster restorative kinship relationships between community and ‘aina, using educational stewardship, traditional ecological knowledge and contemporary and institutional scientific methods.
OHA recently approved $6 million in grants over the next two fiscal years to programs benefiting the Native Hawaiian community. Hawai‘i Forest Institute was one of 23 organizations receiving grant funding to help meet its strategic plan priorities relating to housing, income, health, education and culture. The funds will be disbursed for fiscal years 2018 and 2019.
“We are extremely grateful to OHA for supporting ecology forest restoration and educational programming including our ‘Aloha ‘Aina. Aloha Ka‘upulehu. Aloha Wao Lama.’” said HFI Executive Director Heather Simmons.
“These valuable funds help continue the stewardship work at Ka‘upulehu and foster active, accountable and sustainable relationships for all community stakeholders,” Simmons added.
The long-term mission of the Ka‘upulehu project is for people to feel connected and committed to perpetuating a functioning native landscape, its genealogical stories and multiple truths, and treating each other with kindness and respect. The vision for Ka‘upulehu is to become a healthy landscape of plenty, alive with native plants, bird song and history that will be tended and cherished by many.
Ka‘upulehu is one of 23 traditional ahupua‘a (or land divisions) in the kekaha region of North Kona.
To learn more about the unique ecology, history and culture of Hawaii’s dryland forests, visit www.drylandforest.org.