Contemporary Hawai'i Non-Timber Forest Plant Gathering Practices

Abstract

Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) play a critical role for communities in the United States and across the globe. NTFPs include a diversity of plants and plant parts - from fruit, flowers and leaves to bark, and other parts – as well as fungi. NTFPs provide materials for a multitude of uses, including food, medicine, housing, the arts, and ceremonies. In Hawai‘i, NTFPs were used extensively and continue to be important to subsistence practices and/or make major contributions to cash economies. The purpose of this research is to assess in Hawai‘i what contemporary forest plants are wild harvested, why, and by whom, as well as the social, ecological, and economic implications of wild plant harvest. Methods to identify key forest plant species and harvesters include interviews, the first analysis of the Department of Land and Natural Resources plant permit database, surveys of markets and cultural events, including an online structured survey of plant harvesters across the islands. Results illustrate the importance of connection to place and practice, that conservation methods can be utilized while harvesting, that introduced species can play key substitution roles in contemporary practices, and Hawaiians are key harvesters with many others who engage and contribute to Hawai‘i forests. The kuleana, enduring concern and blessing, of forest resiliency sits between harvesters and formal social structures of management. Native species are still being harvested for subsistence, educational and economic purposes. This NTFP research informs future policy decisions affecting the cross section of contemporary cultural, economic, and conservation values of Hawai‘i forests.