Traditional Ecological Values, Knowledge, and Practices in Twenty-First Century Hawai‘i

We discuss traditional values, knowledge, and practices of the first people of the Hawaiian Islands - as those values are understood and implemented in relation to global society. Prior to European contact, Hawaiian society was dynamic, innovative, and socially, spiritually, and culturally complex; Hawaiians supported large populations in hierarchical societies maintained by large, intensive, and evolving agricultural systems. Hawaiian society was irrevocably changed by contact with the world, and Hawaiian organizations must now walk a difficult line in reflecting both the economic and legal forms of Western organizations and the values of Hawaiian society - while recognizing that change (innovation) itself is a traditional feature of ancient and modern Hawaiian society. One such organization, Kamehameha Schools, is the largest private landowner in Hawai'i; Kamehameha has extensive holdings of agricultural and conservation lands as well as high-value commercial properties. Kamehameha has organized its resource management around a "five-value" framework; instead of managing its lands simply to provide income to support its educational mission, Kamehameha evaluates all of its conservation and agricultural land in terms of its community, economic, cultural, environmental, and educational value - and explicitly optimizes its management to provide the most benefit across all five values. We suggest that this approach itself represents an innovative application of traditional values in the context of a twenty-first century society.