Kua’aina Ulu Auamo
Kua’aina Ulu Auamo
Kua’aina Ulu Auamo
Kuaʻāina Ulu ʻAuamo (KUA) means “grassroots growing through shared responsibility.” Our acronym means “backbone.” KUA was created in 2011 by a statewide network of grassroots rural local and Native Hawaiian community based natural resource management groups called E Alu Pū (“move forward together”). KUA facilitates network movements to empower communities in the care of their biocultural heritage to achieve ‘āina momona— an abundant, productive ecological system that supports community well-being. Today we support three statewide networks: E Alu Pū; a Hawaiian fishpond network called the Hui Mālama Loko Iʻa; and the Limu Hui, a group of Limu (native seaweed) practitioners.
About the Organization:
organizational budget
$500,000 - $1 MILLION
existence for
6-10 YEARS
Organization benefits AAPIs residing in the following state(s):
organizational budget
$500,000 - $1 MILLION
existence for
6-10 YEARS
Organization benefits AAPIs residing in the following state(s):
The Issue:
Subsistence fishers, farmers, gatherers, families and culture-bearers are key environmental stewards in our communities. Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) is an ancestral practice based on generations of intimate traditional ecological knowledge and stewardship; practices that local and Native Hawaiian communities pass on to this day. Degradation and loss of resources and traditional knowledge that supported these practices due to development, land/habitat loss, generational trauma, climate change and the extremely high cost of living presents unique challenges and opportunities. At the local level, the under-capacitated state agencies that govern natural resources in our fishing grounds, streams, forests, & kula (open pastures) are rife with extraction, misuse or neglect. Increased local, national and global policy dialogue, research and literature on effective community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) point to indigenous and local community capacity as key to successful conservation outcomes and addressing climate change as a planet.
The Solution:
- Uplift lawaiʻa (Native fisher) voices to revive an ethic of Lawaiʻa Pono - to ʻfish virtuouslyʻ; to fish in a Hawaiian way - through advocacy for community fishery management goals;
- Support increased knowledge and capacity for loko iʻa (indigenous aquaculture) practitioners through the research, planning and development of restorative hatcheries in tandem with their restoration work; and
- Help a community of seaweed gatherers and partners promote and pass on knowledge to future generations of limu’s (native seaweed) significance.
