Tuesday, October 4, 2005
Hawaiian Lands Protected:
The struggle for this rainforest dramatically brings together
Native cultural rights and environmental issues; the need to protect sacred,
unspoiled areas for Native peoples gives Wao Kele o Puna national importance.
(John Echohawk, Executive Director, Native American Rights Fund)
In 1993, the United States Congress enacted the Hawaiian Apology Joint Resolution,
Public Law 103-150, admitting that the role of the United States military in removing
the Hawaiian monarch, Queen Liliuokalani, from power and installing a provisional
government was illegal under American and international law. Prior to the overthrow,
Hawaii was regarded internationally as one of the family of nations which had concluded
numerous treaties of trade, commerce and friendship with several countries, including the
United States. The Apology was a watershed event in American history, seen by many
Hawaiian people as the first step in making reparations for the illegal overthrow.
The overthrow has been viewed by Native Hawaiians as the ultimate atrocity committed
against their sovereign Nation, the culmination of the enormous political, social,
cultural, economic and spiritual changes wrought on the Hawaiian people since the 1778
arrival of Captain Cook.
The United States admission that the overthrow was illegal, immoral,
and unjust was seen as but a first step in the long process of establishing hooponopono
the Hawaiian traditional system for making things right.
In another step towards hooponopono,on
September 12, 2005, Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA),
the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), and the Trust For Public Land (TPL)
announced the purchase of 25,856 acres more than 40 square milesof Native Hawaiian
rainforest known as Wao Kele o Puna that is strategically located near Hawaii Volcanoes
The property has had a history of controversy, litigation,
and civil protest, but is now on a path to permanent protection thanks to the
partnership. Under the plan, the private non-profit Trust for Public Land will
acquire the property next year from current landowner Campbell Estate and later
convey the culturally important lands to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. DLNR is
working closely with OHA to protect and properly manage the vast forest area when
the transfer occurs. Together, the partnership will ensure that that Wao Kele o Puna
will no longer be threatened with geothermal energy production or converted to
The Pele Defense Fund, organized in the 1980s to protect native
gathering and religious rights in the forest, was instrumental in focusing attention
on the need for permanent protection for the forest. We took a stand for this land
two decades ago in the courts, and have never given up the fight to find a permanent
way to protect this forest, said Palikapu Dedman, President of PDF. We are looking
forward to working with OHA and DLNR to keep this forest healthy and thrivingit is our
responsibility as much as it is our right to malama this place that means so much to our
For twenty years, the Native American Rights Fund has co-counseled
with the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation (NHLC) and private counsel Yuklon Aluli
and Jim Dombrowski in representing the Pele Defense Fund in efforts to prevent large-scale
geothermal development in the Wao KeleO Puna rainforest on the Big Island, and to regain
Native Hawaiian access rights to Wao Kele lands. These efforts culminated with the entry
in August 2002 of a stipulated judgment and order by the state court in Hilo, Hawaii
recognizing the rights of Native Hawaiians to hunt, gather, and worship on the Wao Kele
lands as part of the bundle of traditional and customary rights protected, preserved
and enforced under Article XII, Section 7 of the Hawaii Constitution. With NARFs
assistance, the Trust for Public Lands (Hawaii Office) secured an appraisal of the
property and efforts to purchase the land began.
The property is valuable on multiple levels. Wao Kele o Puna is
extremely important to Native Hawaiians, who for centuries have consistently used the
property for traditional hunting, gathering, and religious purposes. In addition, the
vast rainforest provides essential wildlife habitat for more than 200 native Hawaiian
plant and animal species, including several that are listed as threatened or endangered.
The vast forest will serve as a protected corridor for native birds traversing from mauka
to makai. Wao Kele o Puna is also critical to protecting drinking water quality in Hawaii
County, covering over twenty percent of the Pahoa aquifer, the single largest drinking
water source on the island.
On August 26th, the Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian
Affairs unanimously committed to providing the necessary $250,000 in gap funding
towards the purchase, as well as ongoing funding for planning and management. OHA is
acquiring the area to protect the natural and cultural resources on the land, to
guarantee that Native Hawaiians can continue to exercise traditional and customary
activities on the land, and to ensure that OHA can pass it on to a sovereign governing
The aina is the foundation of our culture, stated Haunani
Apoliona, Chair of the OHA Board of Trustees. Our ability to protect such a rich
and symbolic resource in partnership with TPL and DLNR means that future generations
in Hawaii will benefit from our collective vision and foresight in protecting traditional
lands and resources.
The U.S. Congress, thanks to the leadership of U.S.
Senator Daniel Inouye, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee,
approved $3.4 million in August from the U.S. Forest Services Forest Legacy Program
towards the purchase of the property.
The nearby Hawaii Volcanoes National Park also depends on the
vast forest as a seed bank to provide new growth on fresh lava flows that have
devastated the Parks own native forests. The biological future of Hawaii
Volcanoes National Park is tied directly to the conservation of native forests
at Wao Kele o Puna, said Cindy Orlando, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park Superintendent.