MEDIA RELEASE

Botanist Kawika Winter presents five major lessons of the ahupuaa system that can be applied to contemporary sustainability issues in Hawaii and the world as a whole in a Puana Ka Ike (Imparting Knowledge) lecture in Kona and an Eia Hawaii presentation in Hilo.

Kawika Winter

Winter will discuss “Ahupuaa Restoration: Melding Science and Culture to Produce Models of Sustainability” 5:30-7 p.m. Friday, April 30, at the Keauhou Beach Resort Kahaluu III in Kona and noon-1:30 p.m. Monday, May 3, at the University of Hawaii at Hilo UCB 127.

Winter is the director of Kauai’s Limahuli Garden and Preserve (a branch of the National Tropical Botanical Garden) where he is also in charge of the longstanding Haena Ahupuaa Project. Goals of the project are to restore the culture, the ecology and the community of Haena back to a collective state of health.

“The ahupuaa system of resource management is the traditional model of sustainability that existed here in these islands for at least a millennium,” Winter said. “This management system harnessed ecosystem services which provided for a large and healthy population while at the same time maintaining ecosystem integrity and high levels of biodiversity.”

Winter advocates applying this proven system of sustainability in a modern context — Hawaii’s current situation of shipping in upwards of 95 percent of food and energy.

Winter was born on Oahu and raised in Waialae and Waikiki. He has a master’s degree in botany from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and is currently a doctoral candidate there focusing on theoretical ethnobotany. Winter learned of ahupuaa management from the late kumu hula John Kaimikaua and other kūpuna including Eddie Kaanaana.

For more information on Winter’s presentations, contact Natalie Deisroth at 808-322-0088, ext. 100, or e-mail info@kohalacenter.org.

For lecture schedules and webcasts of previous lectures, visit http://kohalacenter.org/puanakaike/about.html and www.keauhouresort.com/learn-puanakaike.html

The Puana Ka Ike and Eia Hawaii lecture series are presented in partnership with Kamehameha Investment Corporation/Kamehameha Schools, The Kohala Center, Kipuka Native Hawaiian Student Center at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, Keauhou Beach Resort, and Hawaii Tourism Authority.