In Hawaiʻi we thrive as our ocean thrives. The sea is our sustenance, our home, our respite for keiki, mākua, and kūpuna. We mālama our coastlines, loko iʻa, coral reefs, and ahupuaʻa because these places nurture us. This ethic is deeply rooted in place and reflected in Kānaka Maoli and local lifestyles. The Harold K. L. Castle Foundation is a dedicated supporter of community efforts to live this commitment to mālama ʻāina. Community-based stewardship is part of the fabric of Hawaiʻi life and warrants enduring institutional support.
Clarifying and strengthening “co-management” partnerships between communities, state government, and kākoʻo nonprofits can provide the foundation for transparent, equitable, and durable collective care for ʻāina.
Why co-management? Co-management is the sharing of responsibilities and authority to mālama a place or resource. “Co” in most cases consists of the state (or county), and dedicated communities who have gone to great lengths to foster the abundance and health of local fisheries and ecosystems. “Management” may entail:
- Gathering knowledge of resources, community, and cultural practices and sites
- Implementation of restoration and resource management solutions
- Creation and enforcement of rules to ensure resource abundance for generations
- Environmental and cultural education of residents and visitors
From mauka to makai, who better to carry out these activities than the fishers, residents, cultural practitioners and others who know these places best, care for them deeply, and depend on them for their well-being, livelihoods, and cultural practices?
Any seasoned fisher will remind us: the sea is our “icebox”. Not one person’s icebox, but many. Less like an all-you-can-eat buffet, more like a potluck with a line many generations long. The often-repeated ethic to “take only what you need” carries an important addendum—what you need, relative to the needs of others. “Others”—other users, other species, the needs of the species itself for its population to remain self-replenishing. Nearshore systems are taken as an example here, but the implications discussed below are ahupuaʻa-wide.
Those who fish, gather, play in, or steward nearshore habitats day-to-day hold deep knowledge of what is in the icebox, and, importantly, who is in the potluck line. Strengthening co-management is an opportunity to ensure those who hold this knowledge can work closely with the state, counties, and researchers to foster a thriving nearshore ocean with the abundance to provide a portion for all those in the potluck line. Co-management partnerships bring the best available information to a collaborative decision-making table, ensuring fit-for-place solutions are actioned across the paeʻāina.
Why co-management now? Communities have demonstrated the importance of stewardship efforts for our ecosystems and local culture for decades. These community leaders have fostered collaborations with several divisions of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, including the Division of State Parks and Division of Aquatic Resources. Examples include visitor management at Hāʻena and Kīholo State Parks, community-led fisheries stewardship at Kaʻūpūlehu, Miloliʻi, Kīpahulu, and Maunalua Bay, and Makai Watch enforcement partnerships across the state. Community-state relationships have been built, collaboration lessons learned, and unmet capacity needs identified. Now is the time to graduate from collaboration to formal co-management in places where communities are ready.
Co-management is realized in unique ways appropriate to Hawaiʻi, but Hawaiʻi is not alone in this approach. Co-management is practiced around the world, from partnerships between governments and customary tenure holders in Fiji and Solomon Islands, to groundfish sector governance in New England, to Beach Management Units in East Africa. Clear co-management agreements can strengthen partnerships by offering long-term stability, ensuring public transparency, and clarifying roles and authority to carry out the management activities listed above. Consistent and transparent resourcing of co-management is also essential; the community stewardship grants recommended by the Green Fee Advisory Council could become one option for sustained financing.
The question is not whether co-management works, but whether we are ready to formalize it. Co-management is a long time coming for Hawaiʻi, a place where stewardship has always been community-led. Whether you have your hands in the dirt, your mind in policy, or your voice and resources in the conversation, you can help move co-management forward. Strengthening co-management now can ensure our nearshore ocean thrives—and that all those in the potluck line are nourished for generations to come.
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