If the contemporary environmental movement is rooted in place, politics, culture and lifestyle, nowhere is the intertwining more complex than in Hawai'i.
Before environmentalism had a name in the West, Native Hawaiians accepted their stewardship of the land not as a cause but as a condition of being human. Their spiritual connection to the land is reflected in the state motto: Ua mau ke ea o ka 'aina I ka pono (The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness).
Many trace modern Hawaiian environmentalism to the early 1970s when the citizen's group Save Our Surf protested against commercial development of popular surfing spots, and environmental and community groups rallied around farmers being evicted from Kalama Valley.
The movement came of age in 1976, when members of the Protect Kaho'olawe 'Ohana occupied Kaho'olawe to draw attention to the plight of Native Hawaiians and to oppose the use of the island (said to be the home of the Kanaloa, the Hawaiian god of the ocean) as a live-fire military training site.
Led by established organizations like the Sierra Club or by determined individuals and grass-roots groups, local environmental movements have since formed around a wide variety of causes, from preventing development at Sandy Beach to enacting state and federal protections for the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands to developing long-term plans for sustainability.
Hawai'i also has been considered a logical place for environmentalists to take a stand because of the of cultural diversity, unique flora, fauna and ocean life, and the ecosystems they compose.
Hawai'i bears the dubious distinction of having the most endangered species of any state — about 360, according to a 2000 study — many of them endemic species that could not adapt quick enough to the onslaught of introduced diseases, predators or human incursion. An estimated 1,000 species are believed to have become extinct since human contact.
While government and private programs have been effective in protecting endangered species such as the nene (Hawaiian goose), the Haleakala silversword plant, and the Hawaiian monk seal, others species, like the Achatinella fulgens snail (last seen in 1989) have disappeared.
To protect Hawai'i's fragile ecosystems, government agencies have continually taken steps to prevent the introduction of new, dangerous species (such as the brown tree snakes) through rigorous screenings and restrictions, and to combat other threats, such as the Miconia calvescens, which has devastated native forests.
