Linking Land and Sea through Collaborative Research to Inform Contemporary applications of Traditional Resource Management in Hawai‘i

Jade M.S. Delevaux, Kawika B. Winter, Stacy D. Jupiter, Mehana Blaich-Vaughan, Kostantinos A. Stamoulis, Leah L. Bremer, Kimberly Burnett (), Peter Garrod, Jacquelyn L. Troller and Tamara Ticktin
Additional contact information
Jade M.S. Delevaux: Department of Botany, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
Kawika B. Winter: Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Kaneohe, HI 96744, USA
Stacy D. Jupiter: Wildlife Conservation Society, Melanesia Program, Suva, Fiji
Mehana Blaich-Vaughan: Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
Kostantinos A. Stamoulis: School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6102, Australia
Leah L. Bremer: University of Hawai‘i Water Resources Research Center, University of Hawai‘i, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
Peter Garrod: Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
Jacquelyn L. Troller: Oceantroller LLC, Honolulu, HI 96819, USA
Tamara Ticktin: Department of Botany, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 9, 1-19

Abstract: Across the Pacific Islands, declining natural resources have contributed to a cultural renaissance of customary ridge-to-reef management approaches. These indigenous and community conserved areas (ICCA) are initiated by local communities to protect natural resources through customary laws. To support these efforts, managers require scientific tools that track land-sea linkages and evaluate how local management scenarios affect coral reefs. We established an interdisciplinary process and modeling framework to inform ridge-to-reef management in Hawai‘i, given increasing coastal development, fishing and climate change related impacts. We applied our framework at opposite ends of the Hawaiian Archipelago, in H?‘ena and Ka‘?p?lehu, where local communities have implemented customary resource management approaches through government-recognized processes to perpetuate traditional food systems and cultural practices. We identified coral reefs vulnerable to groundwater-based nutrients and linked them to areas on land, where appropriate management of human-derived nutrients could prevent increases in benthic algae and promote coral recovery from bleaching. Our results demonstrate the value of interdisciplinary collaborations among researchers, managers and community members. We discuss the lessons learned from our culturally-grounded, inclusive research process and highlight critical aspects of collaboration necessary to develop tools that can inform placed-based solutions to local environmental threats and foster coral reef resilience.

Keywords: ridge-to-reef; groundwater; land-use; nutrients; bleaching; scenario; resilience; collaboration; scientific tools; management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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