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Hawai‘i as a Model for Conservation
Connecting Hawaiian culture and tradition to conservation ecology
© Alex Wang
With invasive species and climate change, Hawai‘i has experienced so much loss and extinction since Western colonists arrived. But Sam ‘Ohu Gon, the Senior Scientist and Cultural Advisor for the Nature Conservancy of Hawai‘i, believes Hawaiian culture and tradition are key to advancing conservation ecology and has done a lot of work connecting these two worlds. He hopes that one day, Hawai‘i can be not just a microcosm of ecology, but of conservation as well.
BirdNote®
Hawai‘i as a Model for Conservation
Written by Mark Bramhill
Mark Bramhill: This is BirdNote.
[Hawaiian forest soundscape]
Sam ‘Ohu Gon is the Senior Scientist and Cultural Advisor for the Nature Conservancy of Hawai‘i. And he‘s quick to tell you about how special Hawai‘i’s ecology is:
Sam ‘Ohu Gon: Hawai‘i is an amazing place because it‘s a microcosm of the world, right? In one limited area, you have a huge number of the major biome types of the entire globe. And you can find an environmental setting in Hawai‘i that can support just about every living plant species.
Mark Bramhill: With invasive species and climate change, Hawai‘i has experienced so much loss and extinction since Western colonizers arrived. But Sam believes Hawaiian culture and tradition are key to advancing conservation ecology, and has done a lot of work connecting these two worlds.
Sam ‘Ohu Gon: The best managed and preserved areas on earth that remain are ones that largely retain their indigenous relationships. It‘s a movement that‘s growing. And Hawai‘i is kind of leading the way in that. There is growing recognition that traditional knowledge is a vital part of long-term conservation success,
Mark Bramhill: Sam hopes that one day, Hawai‘i can be not just a microcosm of ecology, but of conservation as well.
Sam ‘Ohu Gon: We get to be the example of what can happen in a place if you can work the right combination of people and the natural world. People living in a place, caring for their lands from the top of the mountains above them all the way down into the depths of the sea.
Mark Bramhill: For BirdNote, I’m Mark Bramhill.
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Senior Producer: John Kessler
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York.
Quiet Planet QP17-2106 recorded by Gordon Hempton.
BirdNote‘s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2024 BirdNote April 2024
Narrator: Mark Bramhill
ID# ohugons-02b-2024-04-22 ohugons-02b
Mark Bramhill
Writer NarratorSights & Sounds
