Holoholo i ka La'i o Makua, collaborative community care and management of coastal resources [electronic resource] : creating state law based on customary rules to manage a near shore fishery in Hawai'i

ABSTRACT Local level management can both conserve and provide for productive use of natural resources over long periods of time. However, natural resource management has largely shifted away from local communities to centralized government. In Hāʻena, on the island of Kauaʻi, fishermen continue to catch dinner for their families, alongside over 750,000 tourists per year snorkeling the reefs of one of Hawaiʻi's most popular visitor destinations. Hāʻena has the opportunity to create state sanctioned rules for local level fisheries management; providing a model for 20 other Hawaiʻi communities pursuing similar efforts. I evaluated property rights, responsibilities and rules regulating interactions between people and coastal resources as management shifts from local to state to collaborative partnership through four different mixed-method studies. First, I considered the concept of "community" by investigating how multiple diverse user communities interact with the same place. Through surveys conducted on the beach, I found significant differences in visitor and resident use and views of their responsibilities towards Hāʻena. Second, I worked with one user community, Native Hawaiian subsistence fishermen, to track their catch and the customary practice of sharing fish. I found that sharing yields multiple benefits beyond providing food; these include cultural perpetuation; strong social networks; reciprocal exchange; collective insurance; and enhanced community resilience. Third, I analyzed the unique, legislatively mandated rule-making process in Hāʻena through meeting observations, interviews and analysis of six years of proposed rules drafts. This research highlights difficulties in creating state sanctioned rules based on customary management without enhanced flexibility to adapt these rules and work across government agencies. Nevertheless, communities find creative means to perpetuate customary rules within state constraints. Some examples are gear restrictions that limit fishing to a small user community while protecting public access, and education programs to fulfill social functions of customary rules outside formal regulation. Finally, through interviews with participants in rule making, I illuminated new challenges to early phases of collaborative resource management. These include uncertain legal mandates, overreliance on third party facilitation, capacity needs within government agencies as well as within the community, cross-generational leadership development, and separation of the rule-making process from the target resources themselves. Based on these findings, I offer suggestions to improve other fledging collaborative management efforts. Models in which local users actively collaborate with government as care takers of resources, rather than mere targets of external regulation or professional management, offer potential to enhance communities' -- and society's - ability to meet unprecedented environmental challenges.

Advisor: Thompson Barton H.
Vitousek Peter Morrison primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Ardoin Nicole M. (Nicole Michele) advisor. Thesis advisor
Caldwell Margaret
Fortmann Louise