This summer, the Hawaiʻi Conservation Alliance hosted the 25^th annual Hawaiʻi Conservation Conference in Honolulu. Each year this conference brings together a diverse group of policy makers, scientists, natural resource managers, and students from throughout the Hawaiian and Pacific Islands region to share their experiences and innovations in biocultural preservation and environmental protection. The Hawaiian ʻōlelo noʻeau (wise saying) “Ulu ka lālā i ke kumu” literally means, “The branch grows from the tree trunk” as we learn from conservation lessons of the past to create a desirable, abundant future.

Conference speaker Dr. Fikret Berkes highlighted the tight connection between cultural diversity and biological systems, which is especially important in today’s rapidly changing world. As we work together to generate knowledge about our islands, new data collection and synthesis tools –affordable and online mapping platforms, crowd sourcing apps for aspiring citizen scientists, visual and acoustic sensors – are rapidly transforming how we study and conserve the environment. At the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Kauai, for example, drone technology is being used to discover previously unknown populations of critically endangered plants in hard-to-reach cliff habitats. Take a ride in the drone to see for yourself by watching the video below. The rarest and already-threatened native species in our islands and throughout the world are expected to suffer the greatest from the impacts of climate change, so never before has it been more urgent to better collect, analyze, and convey information at this intersection of humans and the environment.