Protected Lands - Hawaiʻi Island
KŪKŪAU COMMUNITY FOREST
Hawaiʻi Land Trust’s (HILT) Kūkūau Community Forest is a 1,600-acre unimproved koa and ʻōhiʻa forest in Hilo that was donated to HILT for protection from development in 2019.
The long-term vision for HILT’s Kūkūau Community Forest is to cultivate and steward a healthy native forest ecosystem centered on the building of reciprocal relationships with area traditional and customary right holders, stakeholders, and the greater community; self-sustaining selective koa silvicultural harvest practices; and implementing collaborative stewardship through a Hawaiian cultural lens.
Ahupuaʻa: Kūkūau Moku: Hilo Size: 1,600 Acres
Year Protected: 2019
Land Protection Strategy: Owned by Hawaiʻi Land Trust
Conservation Values: Endangered rare plant and animal species including ʻAkuʻaku (Cynea platyphilia), and ʻIo (Hawaiian hawk), sustainable koa harvesting
Land Features: Native forest, abundant watershed (230 inches of annual rainfall), close proximity to Hilo urban community
About Kūkūau Community Forest
Kūkūau Community Forest is home to several species of endangered and rare plants. ʻAkuʻaku or Cyanea platyphylla is a wet forest shrub of the Lobelia family (Campanulaceae). There are only three known populations of this species. Other rare plants include: Bobea eliator, Cibotium hawaiiense, Cyrtandra hawaiiense, Cyrtandra lysiosepala, Lycopodium sp. nov, Marattia douglasii, Pritchardia beccariana, Sadleria soletiana, Tetraplasandra oahuensis. Also, Hawaiian picture-wing flies are only found on the underside of the endemic palm Pritchardia beccariana (Loulu) which have an established population throughout the Kūkūau property.
HILT’s Kūkūau Stewardship and ʻĀina-Based Education Program will create a sanctuary for Kūkūau’s native plants and animals, preserve and revive the function of ancient cultural practices and protocols, and increase Hawaiʻi’s resilience to the effects of climate change.