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Kawika Winter, reserve manager of Heʻeia National Estuarine Research Reserve; and Rosie Alegado, professor of oceanography at the University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant Center, will reflect on the urgent need to restore and strengthen the balanced ecology of the Hawaiian Islands, and will highlight efforts to address the crisis.
Dr. Winter is a multidisciplinary ecologist who has focused his research and professional career on large-scale biocultural restoration of social-ecological systems in Hawai‘i. He is particularly interested in reviving traditional resource management, and he operates in the spheres of academia, conservation, and policy. Dr. Alegado’s research occupies a specific niche, examining the influence of bacteria on evolutionary and geochemical processes. She seeks to decipher the chemical ecology underlying host-microbe interactions, particularly in Native Hawaiian fishponds (loko iʻa). Through this and other efforts, she seeks to reconstruct ecosystems using traditional Indigenous knowledge
In this webinar, we will bring our previous learning to bear on the challenge of confronting myriad threats to Hawai‘i’s irreplaceable ecosystems: environmental degradation, climate change risks, flooding, erosion, water sustainability and quality, resource decline, social impacts, regulatory measures, out-migration, land use conflicts, and economic disparities. We will learn lessons from the Aloha ‘Āina movement, which draws inspiration from traditional knowledge gained from hundreds of years of practice. We will share examples of modern partnerships for managing watersheds, organizing sustainable community food systems; restoring native forests; enhancing biodiversity and reviving community-based approaches to marine resource management.
Part of our Preparing for the Honolulu 2024 Annual Meeting webinar series