The Nature Conservancy - What's Being Said

We Want To Hear From You!

We extend an open invitation to anyone who would like to have a dialogue with us about our Forest Recovery Project, or other aspects of our conservation programs.

Please contact us via email forestrecoveryproject@tnc.org or call Evelyn Wight in Honolulu at (808) 587-6277.

More Project Details

Learn more about the Forest Recovery Project

Pua'a (pigs) - From Traditional to Modern

Read a cultural analysis on Pua'a (pigs), From Traditional to Modern, co-authored by Native Hawaiian cultural experts.

Hawai'i community members speak about the decline of Hawaii’s native forests and the Conservancy’s Forest Recovery Project:

Penny Martin

When I first learned about this project I was resistant to it because we come from an island of hunters and I thought why bring others when we have hunters here already. Then I learned about the project and I saw what was useful about it. #1, they have their own equipment and the most up to date technology which we don’t have here. #2, they are going to leave with us valuable info that will help us control the animals better in the future. And #3 they have their own liability insurance so we wouldn’t be liable for anything that happened to them when they work in dangerous remote forest. These Prohunters are only here for 6 months, they'll collect data, do some hunting, and then leave - and they are not eradicating. I wouldn’t support you guys if I didn’t believe it was right. I have done my homework and I believe in what the Conservancy is doing on Moloka‘i.

I am concerned about the goats eating everything up. We’re going to look like Rabbit Island if we don’t do something. The Conservancy is working hard to protect our forests and reefs even though there is some community resistance, because they know it’s the right thing to do. This project is only a win situation – we get new information about animals on the island, get control of animals which are a disease in our forests, and we don’t have to pay for it.

- Penny Martin, born and raised Hawaiian Moloka‘i resident and cultural practitioner; first Hawaiian woman on a Hôkûle‘a voyage, environmental educator

We’re just a tiny drop in the Pacific, if we can make a 1% difference, it makes a big difference overall. The pressure of outside forces is making the animals move further up the mountain. Our local hunters are not consistent enough to maintain a low population because they are subsistence and so they just take what they need, they are not worrying about increasing our water supplies, saving native forest canopy, or saving the ocean.

You need a more rounded perspective to understand why TNC is doing what it’s doing. You need to look at the wholeness of it, from the mountain top all the way down to the ocean. That’s the plus of this project. We need to protect the forest and the ocean and maintain subsistence opportunities. We need to look out for our island, for its resources, we need to preserve it. They’ve been trying the community hunting for the longest time and it hasn’t improved the situation overall.

One of the biggest reasons I support this project is because of the monitoring and what we can learn from that; also they own their helicopter, and they assume the liabilities for the work.

- Bobby Alcain, born and raised native Hawaiian fisher and hunter of Moloka‘i

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Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Photographer/Org (prickly pear cactus); Photo © Photographer/Org (cheetah); Photo © Photographer/Org; Photo © Photographer/Org (scientist).