Climate Adaptation

Puʻulani: Biocultural restoration of agroforestry in Heʻeia, Oʻahu

March 13, 2023

By Leah Bremer, Zoe Hastings, Maile Wong, and Tamara Ticktin Puʻulani (heavenly ridge) sits above the loʻi kalo (taro patches) that Kākoʻo ʻŌiwi, a community-based organization in Heʻeia, Oʻahu, has been actively restoring since 2010. Just five years ago, in 2018, 100% of the trees at Puʻulani were non-native species. Since then, a partnership between […]

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Time for A Carbon Tax for Hawaii?

January 11, 2023

By James Mak and Erik Haites Hawaii’s constitution requires a Tax Review Commission (TRC) be appointed every five years to review the state’s tax/revenue system. Commissioners comprise of tax experts in the state and serve without compensation. In its final report to the Legislature, the 2020-2022 Tax Review Commission’s top recommendation is a carbon tax […]

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Perspectives from communities threatened by sea-level rise

June 16, 2022

“Amid the growing threat of sea-level rise and coastal erosion of oceanfront communities around the world, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa researchers delved deeper into the response for coastal communities on Oʻahu. A recent survey of stakeholders discovered that what most respondents felt was currently important did not always match with what they felt should […]

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Managing for diverse coastal uses and values under sea level rise: perspectives from O’ahu, Hawaiʻi

June 7, 2022

Effective and equitable coastal decision-making under sea level rise requires managing for multiple coastal uses and values. A new publication led by UHERO’s Environmental Policy and Planning Group analyzes how decision-makers in Hawaiʻi perceive diverse uses and values of beaches and coastlines to be important and how they see recognition of these uses and values ideally shaping […]

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Managing for diverse coastal uses and values under sea level rise: perspectives from Oʻahu

By Leah Bremer, Makena Coffman, Alisha Summers, Lisa Kelley, and Billy Kinney “That whole experience of bonding, the family, the fresh air, that’s so critical. And we’ve lost a lot of that. As we lose the beaches, we lose that part of our culture, which is Hawaiʻi’s culture. Whether it’s a barbecue… or spend [ing] […]

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Restoring Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity through Cost-Effective and Resilient Agroforestry Systems

May 12, 2022

Since September 2018, our project team, composed of University of Hawai‘i faculty and students, Kāko‘o ‘Ōiwi staff, and other partners have worked together to: 1) design, implement, and monitor 10 agroforestry demonstration plots and buffer areas in He‘eia, O‘ahu (objective 1); 2) publish peer-review and practitioner-oriented material on agroforestry, functional traits, and ecosystem services (objective […]

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Private Actions to Combat Climate Change Through Offsetting: The Story of The Coconut Traveler

April 7, 2022

By Kimberly Burnett, James Mak and Christopher Wada In late 2021, the United Nations (UN) held its 26th climate change conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland. Among the many agreements that emerged from the conference was a coordinated plan for tourism climate action (Glasgow Declaration) to cut tourism’s global carbon emissions in half over the next […]

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The Rising Cost of Climate Change on Home Values

October 19, 2021

By Justin Tyndall Climate change poses a clear threat to coastal real estate assets. As sea level rises and coastal weather events become more severe, exposed properties will experience recurring damage and some will become uninhabitable. Homebuyers may fail to fully appreciate the threat of sea level rise, causing homes in coastal areas to be […]

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Producing valuable information from hydrologic models of nature‐based solutions for water

August 19, 2021

UHERO’s Leah Bremer and a group of international collaborators shed light on ways that ecosystem service modeling can better support real-world decision making through attention to the type of decision maker and to the salience, legitimacy, and credibility of information generated.

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