Protected Lands: Hawaiʻi Island
Kaiholena, Kaiholena, Kōhala
Size: 35 acres
Year Protected: 2015
Land Protection Strategy: HILT Conservation Easement
Conservation Values: Shoreline, ancient cultural and archaeological sites
Land Features: Kiawe trees and grassland
ABOUT KAIHOLENA SOUTH
35 acres of coastline along the North Kohala Coast is Kaiholena South where HILT holds a conservation easement. Permanently protected in partnership with the Ala Kahakai Trail Association and several other partners.
The Kaiholena ahupua‘a is still one of the most important areas on Hawai‘i Island – a place where, in 1848 – the time of the mahele, Chief Kamakahonu and Chief Kaopua traded their ancestral lands on O‘ahu to secure the rights to Kaiholena. These lands at Kaiholena were the fifth and thirty-fifth registered properties in the mahele documents. The ahupua‘a of Kaiholena is one of the few whose boundaries extend to the horizon. Kaiholena was once a thriving community as remnants of heiau, massive hālau, burial sites, and village complexes are still visible. Kaiholena has been said to have the most numerous, pre-contact intact cultural and archaeological sites in Hawai‘i with over 200 sites that qualify for the National Historic Register found there.
The Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail reflects a Hawaiian concept of trails as a network connecting places of importance to Native Hawaiian people. It consists of a linear shoreline or near shoreline trail, and on public lands, includes other ancient and historic trails lateral to the shoreline. It may be connected to auka-makai trails within the Ala Kahaki National Historic Trail corridor that traditional would have been part of the ahupua‘a system. The management plan anticipates that the Ala Kahakai Trail Association (ATA) and other organizations will function as partners with the Park in commmunity-based protection of cultural sites and landscapes to be used as a setting for cultural conservaiton through the on-site practice and preservation of Hawaiian values. The purpose of the protection program is to support cultural conservation efforts and to enhance the trail’s relationship to the Native Hawaiian culture, descendants of those whose ancestors were the stewards of the trail’s cultural and natural landscapes, and others with kinship connections to the land.
- Ala Kahakai Trail Association, owner of Kaiholena
