The Kohala Center has established a strong community network to promote conservation and restoration efforts at Kahalu‘u through public outreach, educational efforts, and applied and basic research. With TKC as a community-based center for research and education and as a community-based partner, the University of Hawai‘i can work effectively toward meeting the needs of various constituencies, including Native Hawaiian cultural and business organizations, local government, and local schools, to preserve and enhance the natural environment as a critically important intellectual, educational, cultural, and economic resource. (see more)...

The area of Kahalu‘u stretches from the southern flank of Hualālai beginning at about 5,000 ft. elevation to Kahalu‘u Bay over a distance of roughly 9.5 miles. Although no records of land area for the ahupua‘a could be located, rough calculations indicate that it encompassed an area of ~ 30 sq. mi (~19,200 acres). The entire ahupua‘a is owned by Kamehameha Schools and is managed by Kamehameha Investment Corporation and Bishop Holdings Corporation. The coastal area of the ahupua‘a is resort development which includes the Keauhou Beach Resort, while a coffee plantation occupies the lower slopes of Hualālai, with a large expanse of pristine native forest found in the higher elevations.

Kahalu‘u has important significance to the Hawaiian culture, having served as the residence of several Hawaiian kings. It contains perhaps the highest density in the state of remaining religious/historical sites with related oral traditions, as well as numerous coastal sources of freshwater, and a unique network of caves that were used by the Hawaiians for burials and refuge. It is also the location of one of the few sand beaches in the Kona area and, as in most such places across Hawai‘i, is under siege by development and the enormous destructive pressure of thousands of tourists weekly inundating the area. Through the collaborative efforts of The Kohala Center and Kamehameha Investment Corporation, community-based efforts are underway to protect natural resources of the ahupua‘a (reef, beach, freshwater resources, etc.) through science-based management and the establishment of a “knowledge economy” rather than a tourism-based one. These efforts would benefit immensely from the development and application of the advanced cyberinfrastructure proposed for the Kahalu‘u ahupua‘a.

Our mission: to respectfully engage the Island of Hawai‘i as an extraordinary and vibrant research and learning laboratory for humanity.

Our vision: a state of pono, in which individuals realize their potential, contributing their very best to one another, to the community, and to the ‘āina [the land] itself, in exchange for a meaningful and happy life.