Over the past 40 years, The Nature Conservancy has helped protect more than 200,000 acres of native forest in Hawai‘i and established partnerships to protect more than 1.5 million acres of watershed. The Nature Conservancy is a science-based organization that works with partners to address the greatest challenge of our generation: protecting the lands and waters that sustain us in the face of a changing climate.
For more than a decade, The Nature Conservancy has worked in Heʻeia and Kāneʻohe Bay on the island of Oʻahu to advance conservation and management of natural resources within the region. Heʻeia is one of the few watersheds in Hawaiʻi that are managed from ridge to reef, while remaining relatively undeveloped. The revitalization of the He‘eia wetlands and stream is intended to increase biodiversity at the critical nexus between the upper watershed and Kāne‘ohe Bay by restoring fish passage from negative impacts of industrialized agriculture and urbanization in the surrounding areas since the mid-nineteenth century.
With its partners and with a firm footing in Hawaiian values, TNC Hawaii and Palmyra is helping to remove invasive vegetation, plant native and indigenous plants, restore nearshore areas, and institute traditional Hawaiian agricultural practices to revitalize the watershed, and in doing so enrich the surrounding communities while transferring knowledge of traditional Hawaiian farming and fishing practices to the next generation of kama’aina.
