Sustainability in Hawaii

1. Sustainability in Hawaii
By Bethany Cole

2. -Sustainable: adj. Conserving an ecological balance by
avoiding the depletion of natural resources.
Hawaii is the most isolated island chain, and is over 6,000
miles away from any other known land. Therefore,
sustainability is important, if the island should be able to
stay a stable ecosystem and provide for it's inhabitants.
An old system of land division that was used during the
time of the ali'i in Hawaii, called Ahupua'a, was based off
of sustainability and was indeed very useful in keeping
the ecosystem stable.
Sustainability in Hawaii

3. -Ahupua'a: n. Land divisions that were used in ancient
hawaii that were often based off of the watershed of a
stream on older islands such as the Oahu and Maui.
The shape and size of the ahupua'a varied, but they all
contained the necessary resources for living and
sustaining a civilization, and not upsetting their culture &
religion. They were created as a way to help the
hawaiian chieftains (ali'i) divide the lands in a way to give
land to families so that they all had the necessary
Ahupua'a

4. Ahupua'a today
What can we learn from traditional ahupua'a? Recently,
significant attention has been given to reviving the
ahupua'a concept to confront the challenges of
sustainability in modern Hawai'i. Obviously, our current
challenges are different than those in pre-contact
Hawai'i, but many of the management systems are still
pertinent and practical for modern-day problems. The
lessons we can learn are many, but three primary
practices figure prominently in moving toward
sustainable Hawaiian futures. These include the
recognition and implementation of pono practices,
building capacity for community-based action and
managing our environment holistically. Reviving these
strategies requires changes from the level of the

5. Sustainability regarding food supplies has become more
important as living costs have been rising. The amount
of food in Hawaii that is imported from outlying areas has
been increasing, and reached 80% in the year 2012.
The rising prices have been creating more of a reason for
local families to eat at cheap fast food restaurants,
creating an increased amount of child obesity; especially
in the Native Hawaiians.
Regarding Food

6. Some solutions that have been brought to mind are
teaching the island families how to grow their own food,
and also how to make food so they can learn to supply
their children with healthy meals to take the place of
high-calorie, greasy foods filled with hormones like at
fast food restaurants.
Another solution is giving out healthy, easy recipe
cookbooks to low income families so they can make
cheap food that still holds all the needed nutrients and
not break the budget.
"As the native Hawaiians used the resources within their
'ahupua'a, they practiced aloha (respect), laulima
(cooperation), and malama (stewardship) which resulted
in a desirable pono (balance). This is sound resource
Regarding Food (solutions)

7. http://www.bishopmuseum.org/greenwell/ahupuaa.html
islandbreath.blogspot.com
http://www.greenmagazinehawaii.com/culture_v1-1.html
BIBLIOGRAPHY