Hawai'i's Environment
Groups find a cause to care for
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Columnist
In recent years, groups of folks with visions of a safe, clean, healthy island state began fostering a broad community commitment to that scenario.
The Polynesian Voyaging Society was looking for ways to convey what it had learned in a quarter-century of connecting the cultures of the Pacific. The Nature Conservancy of Hawai'i, the Secretariat for Conservation Biology and others were looking for a larger voice to spread their message.
"Those of us in the conservation community recognized that if we stayed in conservation, we wouldn't get anywhere. We'd be talking to ourselves," said Aulani Wilhelm, the former state Department of Land and Natural Resources public information officer who oversees the loose confederation they formed.
They call it Malama Hawai'i, with "malama" roughly translated "to care for."
The group is broadly configured. Among its members, besides those listed above, are the DNLR, the Boys and Girls Club of Hawai'i, Bishop Museum, the Hawai'i Ecotourism Association, Hui Nalu Canoe Club, the Ahapua'a Action Alliance, and more than 60 others, plus hundreds of individuals.
Malama Hawai'i, according to a statement on its Web site, aims "to engage the people of Hawai'i to be responsible caretakers of our special island home through a collaborative public awareness partnership that links health, environment, education, culture and our economy and mobilizes people toward meaningful action."
The organization traces its roots to several places, one of them a 1973 speech by former state Sen. Kenneth Brown, in which he said: "We've tested the malama ethic in a somewhat random way on a lot of the important problems that confront us these days, and it seems to hold up as a consistent guiding principle."
While many of its groups have an environmental bent, Malama Hawai'i does not limit its vision.
Its goal, according to its Web site, is: "That Hawai'i, our special island home, be a place where the people, land and sea are cared for, and communities are healthy and safe."
To accomplish that, Malama figures to link the various missions of its members and involve people, feeding those interested in volunteering into the kinds of projects that move them.
One of its interesting features is a Web-based volunteering hub. On the Web site, you can plug in what you're interested in doing, when you're available and other information, and Malama will try to find an appropriate volunteer venue for you.
Wilhelm said a coordinating group sets directions, and general membership meetings are held quarterly. Members get regular updates on activities through e-mail.
Jan TenBruggencate is The Advertiser's science and environment writer, and its Kaua'i Bureau chief. Reach him at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.
