1. Restoring Hawai‘i’s native fish ponds
Right now, 63% of Hawai‘i’s seafood is imported — a surprising stat for an island chain in the middle of the Pacific. But those waters are far from pristine; pollution runoff, overfishing and coral reef degradation all mean that many seafood specials are flown in from thousands of miles away.
To address this, some native Hawaiians have turned to Hanai i’a, the practice of raising fish in loko i’a, the fish ponds built on the coasts by their ancestors. These fish ponds once provided millions of pounds of seafood to local communities, simultaneously restocking surrounding reefs with fish when pond managers release stock into the wild. Given their location in coastal zones, resurrecting a single fish pond requires completing a complex permitting procedure — so Conservation International (CI) is helping streamline the process.
By rekindling time-tested hunting, fishing, farming and gathering traditions, communities in Hawai‘i and worldwide can become more self-sufficient — and often reduce their environmental footprints while doing so.
2. Establishing a conservation corridor that protects more than trees
Don’t let its small size fool you — Suriname is a conservation giant. In addition to retaining over 94% of its original rainforest cover (the highest in the world), in 2015 indigenous communities there declared an indigenous Southern Suriname Conservation Corridor (SSCC) covering 7.2 million hectares (17.8 million acres). While current law doesn’t allow for indigenous management, CI is working closely with the government and indigenous communities to allow community-owned conservation areas like the SSCC to be incorporated into the country’s official protected areas.
Besides protecting nearly all of Suriname’s watersheds and an array of Amazonian species, the SSCC provides economic benefits to the 3,000 Trio and Wayana indigenous peoples inhabiting it through ranger and monitoring jobs supported by CI and partners. Suriname’s indigenous peoples have set remarkable precedents in the country: Not only have they declared the corridor and designated their land for conservation, the government has formally recognized their declaration. In doing so, the people of Suriname are preserving the tropical forests vital for storing carbon and combating climate change.