The Nature Conservancy in Hawaii - 'Ola'a-Kilauea Partnership

`Ōla`a-Kīlauea Partnership
Island of Hawai`i

On the slopes of Mauna Loa Volcano, public and private interests are working together to protect and restore one of the best remaining large-scale native forest ecosystems in Hawai`i. Formed in 1994, the `Ōla`a-Kīlauea Partnership expanded from 32,000 to 418,000 acres with the addition of new lands, including the 116,000-acre Kahuku Ranch addition to Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park.

The Nature Conservancy, with its forest preserves in South Kona and Ka`ū, joined the partnership in 2003 and is now assisting in developing a regional protection strategy for this vast, contiguous landscape.

The partnership is now in the process of furtherexpansion, to extend resource protection and management efforts across the slopes of Mauna Loa, Kîlauea and Hualalai. As part of a “Three Mountain Alliance,” the partnership will continue to coordinate management and research efforts to protect this high-quality native ecosystem. These forests provide essential habitat for four species of endangered forest birds, and also supports the endangered 'io, nene, Hawaiian bat and 22 rare and endangered plant species, including the Mauna Loa, or Ka'ū Silversword.

Ferns and native forest

Our Approach
In 1999, the National Park Service recognized `Ōla`a-Kīlauea as the most successful natural resource-based management partnership in the country for its work in cooperatively protecting and restoring the `Ōla`a-Kīlauea forested watershed with its abundance of natural and cultural resources. Over the years, the innovative partnership has utilized state prison labor to help build fences and conduct other conservation activities. Inmates learn important propagation techniques in cultivating and outplanting native plants to restore the landscape. This work provides inmates with training and education that helps bridge their return from incarceration to society, while providing the partnership with a small, reliable work force helping to

How the Partnership Will Help the Watershed
Collaborating across ownership boundaries, the partnership first focused on tackling the three most significant threats to the integrity of the forested watershed: invasive weeds, feral cattle, mouflon sheep and other non-native ungulates, and wildfire prevention and response. The partners have pooled their staff expertise and funding resources to conserve native ecosystems, and significantly reduce the threats of invasive ungulates and weeds on partnership lands. The partnership has so far fenced and removed ungulates from over 14,000 acres, and continues to propagate and outplant native plants to restore the landscape.

The 'io is the only hawk native to Hawai'i
© Robert Shallenberger/TNC
Partners
The following groups have worked together to understand and protect the rare and interdependent communities of plants and animals who live in this unique ecosystem:

Kamehameha Schools
National Park Service - Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park
Hawai`i State Department of Land and Natural Resources
State Department of Public Safety
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
U.S. Forest Service
U.S. Geological Survey, Biological Resources Division
The Nature Conservancy