The Community Guide to Hawaiʻi Land Conservation

Protecting a threatened special place can seem daunting or even impossible. Knowing who to call, what to research, and how to ask for assistance can be confusing. Community members often ask how they can work with TPL and other land trusts. This is a guide about the process to empower communities across Hawaiʻi in protecting land with cultural, agricultural, and/or ecological significance.

A group of adults and children stand outdoors on grassy terrain with palm trees, wearing casual clothes and hats, appearing to participate in a community or environmental activity.

“He aliʻi ka ʻāina; he kauwā ke kanaka.”
Mary Kawena Pukui, ʻŌlelo Noʻeau.

This Hawaiian Proverb translates to “The land is chief; man is its servant.” There’s a deep understanding in Hawaiʻi, that the land provides everything needed to survive, and that there’s a responsibility to care for the land which provides food, water, and shelter. This wise Hawaiian saying speaks to the reciprocal relationship between people and the land.

Today’s voluntary land conservation typically works within Western principles of property law. It is not a cure-all. Voluntary land conservation cannot resolve complex social, economic, and political issues relating to the overthrow of the Hawaiian government and the Mahele’s mass dispossession of Hawaiians from land. Voluntary land conservation, however, can take tangible steps toward a more holistic and community-based model of ownership and stewardship that reconnects people to land, and rebuilds the reciprocal relationship between people, ʻāina, and community.

Trust for Public Land and Hawaiʻi Land Trust share below the Community Guide to Hawaiʻi Land Protection to clarify the voluntary land conservation process and empower communities across Hawaiʻi in protecting privately owned and threatened lands with cultural, agricultural, and/or ecological significance.

Voluntary land conservation – buying land for public agencies or community organizations or restricting land uses on private property with the cooperation of the landowner — has resolved heated land disputes and created win-win-win solutions that benefit private landowners, our environment, community, and future generations. Where land use is contentious, the process of collaboratively working toward the land’s protection often begins a healing process that can build community resiliency and connections.

Get started by downloading The Community Guide to Hawaiʻi Land Conservation