Interior Department Announces $20 Million from President’s Investing in America Agenda to Bolster Climate Resilience in Hawaiʻi
News release form US DoI, July 29, 2024
WASHINGTON — The Department of the Interior today announced a $20 million investment through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to bolster climate resilience in Hawaiʻi. Funding will be awarded to 17 Native Hawaiian Organizations (NHOs) to restore native ecosystems and plants and enhance food security while incorporating Indigenous Knowledge and practices.
Island ecosystems like those found in Hawaiʻi are incredibly biodiverse, and more susceptible to climate-related impacts, such as wildfires and warmer and more acidic oceans. As part of its Restoration and Resilience Framework, the Department is working to foster stable and sustainable island communities by building climate resilience across critical habitats, ecosystems, and infrastructure and reducing threats from pollution sources, invasive species, increased fire risk, and changes in ocean conditions. Today’s investment is part of more than $2 billion through the President’s Investing in America agenda that the Department is using to strengthen the resilience of the nation’s lands and waters.
“The Hawaiian Islands face unique and intensifying climate-related challenges that pose an existential threat to lives and livelihoods. The Indigenous Knowledge within the Native Hawaiian Community will be invaluable as we face these challenges head-on,” said Secretary Deb Haaland. “As the state faces some of climate change’s most damaging effects, this investment through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is a critical step toward planning for and implementing climate resilience measures, and safeguarding Hawaiʻi for generations to come.”
Funding for the program comes from the Inflation Reduction Act – the largest ever investment in climate. Across the country, these once-in-a-generation investments are providing affordable high-speed internet, safer roads and bridges, modern wastewater and sanitation systems, clean drinking water, reliable and affordable electricity, and good-paying jobs.
Today’s announcement advances the Biden-Harris administration’s Justice40 Initiative, which sets the goal that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.
Funding will be implemented through the Department's Office of Native Hawaiian Relations’ (ONHR) Kapapahuliau Climate Resilience Program, which aims to empower the Native Hawaiian Community by placing Indigenous Knowledge, practices and ingenuity at the center of programs that will cope with past and present climate impacts, develop adaptation strategies to manage future climate challenges, and create systemic change. These efforts will contribute to the vision laid out in the Biden-Harris Administration’s National Climate Resilience Framework of a climate-resilient nation.
ONHR hosted two virtual information sessions and a series of in-person scoping meetings for the Native Hawaiian Community on several islands, including Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, Maui, Kauaʻi, and Molokaʻi, ahead of making these awards, to ensure selected proposals reflect the needs and values of the Native Hawaiian Community. Find a full list of projects funded on the Department’s website.
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2024 Kapapahuliau Climate Resilience Program Recipients
ONHR awarded 17 Native Hawaiian Organizations (NHOs) with funding for climate resiliency projects across three funding categories:
from USDoI, July, 2024
2024 Kapapahuliau Climate Resilience Program Native Hawaiian Organization (NHO) Recipients:
Kiakahi (Individual NHO) Named for a single-masted sailing canoe, Kiakahi applicants are those who propose a single project resulting in outcomes that support the applicant and the constituents it serves.
Project Title: Kiolakaʻa Dryland Forest Restoration Project
NHO: Ala Kahakai Trail Association
This project aims to restore and preserve the native ecosystemNa and ancestral relationships of the Kiolakaʻa dryland forest in Kaʻū through Native Hawaiian descendant and community engagement. Educational and field activities for the community and youth will increase awareness of climate change and lead to a long-term program for community stewardship and management.
www.alakahakaitrail.org
Project Title: E Hoʻomau O Nā Mālama I Nā Iwi Kūpuna
NHO: The Hawaiian Church of Hawaiʻi Nei
Protection of nā iwi kūpuna (ancestral burials) through education and workshops for Native Hawaiians and their families on gathering native plant materials (lauhala, wauke, hau, and ipu) to prepare and craft sacred ceremonial items to care for nā iwi kūpuna exposed by climate change and development.
www.hawaiianchurchhawaiinei.org
Project Title: Lei Kaiāulu - Empowering Youth in the Waiʻanae Moku to Engage Community and Impact Climate Resiliency
NHO: Hoʻomahua Foundation
Youth engagement to preserve and promote Native Hawaiian cultural practices, understand climate science and its impacts and cultivate next-generation leadership to adapt to climate change-related impacts affecting the Waiʻanae community in Leeward Oʻahu.
www.hoomahua.org
Project Title: Hoʻonohopapa Koholālele
NHO: Hui Mālama i ke Ala ʻŪlili
This is a ʻāina stewardship and community-based economic development project that seeks to restore a thriving, resilient, intergenerational ahupuaʻa-based community in Koholālele, Hāmākua, Hawaiʻi. Native Hawaiian community members will be engaged in workdays on agroforestry planting of native forest and food crops, indigenous environmental observation, and soil monitoring activites.
www.alaulili.com
Project Title: Hoʻi Nō e Ka ʻolu o Makaliʻi
NHO: Kauluakalana
The grant will focus on cultural resurgence and resilience through the return (hoʻi) of balance and abundance (ʻolu) to the lands and waters of Makaliʻi, a historically and culturally significant land tract (ʻili ʻāina) on Oʻahu. Community-based restoration and education grounded in traditional Native Hawaiian land- and water-based practices will focus on the restoration of water resources, invasive species removal, agriculture, agroforestry, and youth engagement.
www.kauluakalana.org
Project Title: Ola I Ke Au A Kanaloa: Thrive in the Era of Kanaloa
NHO: Kohe Mālamalama o Kanaloa Protect Kahoʻolawe Fund
Documenting seasonal cycles reflected on Kahoʻolawe and its surrounding sea to foresee climate change, mapping sea level rise in relation to cultural sites and designing protocols for impacted sites, and establishing a base camp at Kūheʻeia.
www.protectkahoolaweohana.org
Project Title: Project Huliʻia
NHO: Nā Maka Onaona
Native Hawaiian communities of Anahola and Waimea, Kauaʻi will be supported to re-establish relationships with their natural environment, focusing on marine resources that influence behaviors to support resilience to climate change. Community members and partner organizations will be engaged in Huliʻia workshops and field activities to increase their capacity to identify key environmental indicators, assess their condition, and derive actions to improve the recovery of impacted marine resources.
www.namakaonaona.org
Project Title: Loli Honua
NHO: Oʻahu Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association
The project aims to perpetuate the Native Hawaiian sport of outrigger canoe paddling by maintaining and protecting an access road for the iconic Molokai Channel Canoe Races from climate change-related runoff and erosion. Activities involve road surface repair and drainage improvements.
www.ohcra.com
Project Title: Hoʻoulu Pono - Biocultural restoration of Hawaiian Fishpond and community in the face of climate change
NHO: Pacific American Foundation Inc.
Leveraging the knowledge and experience gained over the last 30 years by utilizing biocultural restoration practices to address the challenges of climate change while also meeting the needs of the community to feed itself. Bridging indigenous wisdom and practice in the context of a Hawaiian loko iʻa (fishpond) with modern science and technology is critically important to address the challenges of climate change for us.
www.thepaf.org
Project Title: Punahoa Heritage Forest Protection and Preservation Project
NHO: Pūʻā Foundation
Conservation of 390 acres of intact native forest and forest bird habitat in the Hilo Watershed on Hawaiʻi Island to perpetuate traditional Native Hawaiian practices and stewardship. Project activities involve feral ungulate and invasive species removal, perimeter fencing installation, and development of cultural access protocol.
www.puafoundation.org
Project Title: ʻUPENA Project - Understanding Practices to Educate on Native Abundance
NHO: Waihapakai
Advancing food security and adaption to address coastal impacts from climate change in Punaluʻu, Oʻahu. Project activities involve native plant restoration, land mapping and planning, coastal and ecological monitoring, and community and youth engagement to increase resilience.
Project Title: A Healer in Every Home, A Garden in Every Home
NHO: Waimānalo Health Center
This project will perpetuate the planting and growth of appropriate native plants with the Waimānalo community to address the impact of climate change on health and wellness. Demonstration projects will be used to engage Waimānalo elementary schools and their families through a series of special event activities and to the larger community through classes and educational sessions.
www.waimanalohealth.org
ʻAuwaʻa (NHO Collaboration) Named for a fleet of sailing canoes, ʻAuwaʻa applicants are those that represent a group of identified partners collaborating on a joint project with shared outcomes.
Project Title: Ka Liʻu O Loko Climate Resilience Project
NHO: Mālama Loko Ea Foundation
Supporting a cohort of loko iʻa (Hawaiian fishponds) to cope and adapt to climate change impacts by building capacity among kiaʻi loko (fishpond stewards) to apply indigenous knowledge and cultural responses to ensure fishpond vitality through kilo (observation), water quality monitoring, attention to seasonal cycles, species propagation, and natural indicators.
www.lokoea.org
Project Title: ʻImi Aku, ʻImi Iho
NHO: ʻOhana Waʻa
Empowering voyaging organization partners on Maui, Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, and Kauaʻi to recognize and respond to immediate and growing climate change effects. The ʻImi Naʻauao programmatic framework will be expanded to better understand climate change impacts through observation and data collection, analysis results, shared lessons learned, and the wisdom of kūpuna and other practitioners. This project seeks to strengthen cultural and climate resilience and adaptability for ourselves and future generations.
www.ohanawaahawaii.org
Project Title: Kūpaʻa Heʻeia
NHO: Paepae o Heʻeia
Paepae o Heʻeia and Kākoʻo ʻŌiwi will employ indigenous Hawaiian aquacultural and agricultural management strategies and solutions to address and mitigate climate change-related challenges in Heʻeia, Oʻahu. Project activities will include flood mitigation through invasive vegetation removal, native plant restoration to improve groundwater recharge, and coastal erosion mitigation through fishpond wall restoration.
www.paepaeoheeia.org
Hoʻokele (NHO Grant-Maker) Named for the helmsman or navigator of a canoe, Hoʻokele applicants are those who have the administrative capacity and experience to provide financial and technical assistance to sub-recipient NHOs (sub-recipient NHOs must meet the same eligibility requirements as recipient NHOs) from underserved or disadvantaged communities that need assistance but often lack the administrative capacity to be successful in a competitive grant environment.
Project Title: Restoring Native Hawaiian Ways of Knowing and Being to Enhance Climate Change Resiliency in East Maui
NHO: Hōlani Hāna Inc.
Administering a cooperative agreement with ONHR to amplify Native Hawaiian knowledge systems and place-based practices to strengthen the resiliency and self-reliance of the Native Hawaiian communities of East Maui from Koʻolau to Kahikinui.
www.holanihana.org
Project Title: Hoʻohonua no nā Hānauna ʻŌiwi
NHO: Kanu o ka ʻĀina Learning ʻOhana
Administering a cooperative agreement with ONHR to implement a subgrant program for Hawaiian-focused charter school communities across Hawaiʻi to address community-specific climate change-related issues.
www.kalo.org