Closing Keynote - Samuel M. ʻOhukaniʻōhiʻa Gon III

The Hawaiian Islands have the distinction of being the most isolated high island archipelago on Earth. The range of elevation and moisture settings, from deserts to arguably the wettest spot on Earth, and from sea level to snow-capped alpine summits nearly 14,000 feet above, results in the islands bearing more ecological lifezones than any other place of equal size on the planet. It can be argued that any terrestrial organism on Earth could find its optimal niche, its “sweet spot” somewhere in the islands. The huge range of potential habitats and the profound isolation imposed by the barrier of thousands of kilometers of surrounding ocean resulted in the evolution of life forms and ecosystems that are unique on the planet and textbook examples of evolutionary process. This in turn provided huge opportunities for the first humans to discover and live in the islands, native Hawaiians, a Polynesian people that had become adapted to life on islands for millennia prior to their occupation in Hawaiʻi. The resulting socioecological system that developed in the 1000 years that Hawaiians lived here before contact with the Western World, allowed for the development of one of the pinnacles of Polynesian societies, yet, when we combined geospatial modeling, archeological data, phytoecological modeling, and pre-contact oral traditional accounts, we found that Hawaiian society achieved population densities rivaling those of today,100% self-sufficient, and yet imparting a remarkably small ecological footprint. In facing todayʻs challenges in Global Sustainability and deteriorating ecosystems worldwide, land and sea, what lessons and global models can arise from 1000 years of sustainable island existence? What can island sustainability in Hawaiʻi tell us about a future sustainable existence on Island Earth?
Sam ʻOhukaniʻōhiʻa Gon III is Senior Scientist and Cultural Advisor for The Nature Conservancy of Hawaiʻi & Palmyra. Sam is also an affiliate graduate faculty member in the University of Hawaiʻi.
Sam’s expertise is in Hawaiian terrestrial ecosystems and species and in biocultural conservation, which strives to “mainstream” Hawaiian knowledge, values and practice into conventional conservation efforts, in Hawaiʻi and globally. Conventionally trained as a conservation biologist, Sam was also traditionally trained by a master of Hawaiian chant and ceremony and underwent the ʻūniki huʻelepo (rite of passage) as a kahuna kākalaleo and kumu of oli in the hālau, Nā Waʻa Lālani Kāhuna o Puʻu Koholā - a responsibility passed to him by his late teacher. As an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) commissioner, Sam focuses on creating and strengthening indigenous membership and participation in international conservation, an evolving and growing theme in recent World Conservation Congresses in Hawaiʻi (2016) and Marseille (2021).