NOAA and Hawaiʻi-based partners are launching a new pilot project to co-produce a poly-forestry climate dashboard with the Keaukaha Panaʻewa Farmers Association for the community of Panaʻewa on the Island of Hawaiʻi.
NOAA and Hawaiʻi-based partners are launching a new pilot project to co-produce a poly-forestry climate dashboard with the Keaukaha Panaʻewa Farmers Association for the community of Panaʻewa on the Island of Hawaiʻi. Poly-forestry (“poly” to mean both “many” as well as “Polynesian”) is a traditional Pacific Island system for managing land use that aims to increase the overall yield of the land by combining the productions of crops (including tree crops) and forest plants and/or animals on a given unit of land. The pilot will apply management practices that are culturally compatible with the local population.
“Ensuring that NOAA’s climate data and tools are useful for everyone, and building community resilience to climate change reflect the core fundamentals of equity at the Department of Commerce,” said Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves. “I’m excited that Keaʻahuli brings together so many partners that are dedicated to learning from each other and working together to put data to work in a way that benefits the community.”
The pilot project, “Keaʻahuli O Panaʻewa - Poly-Forestry and Climate Dashboard” aims to establish a food forest — a species-rich, multilayered poly-forestry system that contains useful food and medicinal plants and extends up, down and out. The project will build farmer knowledge about the effects of changing weather and climate patterns such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, and foster community engagement and agro-resiliency in the Panaʻewa Hawaiian Homestead. Through a $150,000 NOAA investment in Fiscal Year 2022 towards the administration and completion of the pilot project, Keaukaha Panaʻewa Farmers Association will partner with NOAA, the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, East-West Center, and University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa to blend traditional knowledge associated with poly-forestry and planting with western science, and utilize NOAA data and climate expertise in order to create a data set for the homestead community.
Read more at: NOAA
