Hawaii FEP - Western Pacific Fishery Council

1.7.2 Community Groups and ProjectsAs described above, communities and community members are involved in the Council’smanagement process in explicit advisory roles, as sources of fishery data and as stakeholdersinvited to participate in public meetings, hearings, and comment periods. In addition, cooperativeresearch initiatives have resulted in joint research projects in which scientists and fishermenwork together to increase both groups’ understanding of the interplay of humans and the marineenvironment, and both the Council’s Community Development Program and the CommunityDemonstration Projects Program foster increased fishery participation by indigenous residents ofthe Western Pacific Region.The Council is sponsoring the Hoohanohano I Na Kupuna (Honoring our Ancestors) conferenceseries in partnership with the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs and in consultation with thenative Hawaiian community. The conference has received the support of the KamehamehaSchools/Bishop Estate, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, various departments of the State of Hawaii,the Hawaii Tourism Authority and numerous community organizations and projects throughoutthe State of Hawaii. Fishery ecosystem management provides the Council with the opportunity toutilize the manao (thoughts) and ike (knowledge) of our kupuna (elders) – ideas and practicesthat have sustained na kanaka maoli (native Hawaiian) culture for millennia.The conference series was initiated by the Council to engage the Kanaka Maoli community inthe development of the Hawaii Archipelago FEP and to increase their participation in themanagement of fisheries under the FEP’s authority. A series of workshops with the KanakaMaoli community to promote the concept of ahupuaa (traditional natural resource unit)management began in 2003 through the AOHCC. This endeavor was continued by the Council inorder to take the ahupuaa concept to the next level, the development of a process to implementtraditional resource management practices into today’s management measures.Conference attendees, many of them native practitioners who continue traditional practices andrelationships with the natural environment taught to them by their kupuna, requested thattraditional resource management be incorporated into contemporary resource management andthat education play a major role in this effort. A motivation for the series was the often heardmanao that “we want to teach our keiki (children) a practice, not a memory.”The first conference (Puwalu I) was held in August 2006 and included over 100 ahupuaapractitioners who discussed the development of aha moku (traditional councils which governedone or more ahupuaa) that would manage natural resources for the aha moku through theimplementation of culturally based, site-specific conservation and utilization practices.The second conference (Puwalu II) was held in November 2006. At this conference culturalpractitioners and educators met and developed a declaration regarding the education of Hawaii’schildren, the development of appropriate consultation protocols, the customary and traditionalrights of na kanaka maoli, and a commitment to further action as follows:Having met to deliberate on how to incorporate traditional Hawaiian practices and knowledge,into the daily education of Hawai‘i’s children;22