**Biocultural Restoration of Traditional Agriculture: Cultural, Environmental, and Economic Outcomes of Lo'i Kalo Restoration in He'eia, O'ahu**

**Leah L. Bremer 1,2, Kim Falinski 2,3, Casey Ching 4, Christopher A. Wada 1, Kimberly M. Burnett 1, Kanekoa Kukea-Shultz 3,5, Nicholas Reppun 5, Gregory Chun 6,7, Kirsten L.L. Oleson <sup>4</sup> and Tamara Ticktin <sup>8</sup>**


Received: 31 July 2018; Accepted: 25 November 2018; Published: 29 November 2018

**Abstract:** There are growing efforts around the world to restore biocultural systems that produce food while also providing additional cultural and ecological benefits. Yet, there are few examples of integrated assessments of these efforts, impeding understanding of how they can contribute to multi-level sustainability goals. In this study, we collaborated with a community-based non-profit in He'eia, O'ahu to evaluate future scenarios of traditional wetland and flooded field system agriculture (lo'i kalo; taro fields) restoration in terms of locally-relevant cultural, ecological, and economic outcomes as well as broader State of Hawai'i sustainability goals around food, energy, and water. Families participating in the biocultural restoration program described a suite of community and cultural benefits stemming from the process of restoration, including enhanced social connections, cultural (re)connections to place, and physical and mental well-being, which inspired their sustained participation. We also found benefits in terms of local food production that have the potential to provide economic returns and energy savings over time, particularly when carried out through a hybrid non-profit and family management model. These benefits were coupled with potential changes in sediment and nutrient retention with implications for water quality and the health of an important downstream fish pond (loko i'a) and coral reef social-ecological system. Compared with the current land cover (primarily invasive grasses), results suggest that full restoration of lo'i kalo would decrease sediment export by ~38%, but triple nitrogen export due to organic fertilizer additions. However, compared with an urban scenario, there were clear benefits of agricultural restoration in terms of reduced nitrogen and sediment runoff. In combination, our results demonstrate that a biocultural approach can support the social and financial sustainability of agricultural systems that provide multiple benefits valued by the local community and non-profit while also contributing to statewide sustainability goals.

**Keywords:** biocultural restoration; food energy water; ecosystem services; cultural services; sustainable agriculture; Hawai'i; taro; wetland agriculture; flooded field systems; lo'i kalo; sediment; nutrients

#### **1. Introduction**

Across the globe, multiple factors have stimulated a growing interest in biocultural approaches to ecological restoration [1–5], including the strengthening of indigenous cultural revitalization movements [6,7], increasing acknowledgement among conservation and restoration professionals of the importance of social-ecological linkages [8–11], and growing recognition that restoration success often depends on community engagement [12–14]. Biocultural approaches to restoration focus on both ecological outcomes, such as biodiversity restoration and erosion control, as well as cultural outcomes, such as restoration of culturally important species and the traditions associated with them and community (re)connection to place [15–17]. Building on broader theories of social-ecological systems that emphasize the links between humans and the environment [18,19], biocultural approaches place further emphasis on a place-based approach and explicitly recognize that cultural and biological outcomes are interlinked and mutually reinforcing [20]. For example, the restoration of indigenous food production systems can strengthen cultural identity and improve nutrition and food self-sufficiency, while also restoring habitat for native plants and animals [2]. Restored habitats can then reinforce other cultural traditions that are linked to them [20]

Whereas industrial monocultures are often framed in terms of tradeoffs among food production and other outcomes such as water quality [21], traditional agricultural systems are typically characterized as potentially sustainable systems with synergies among desired ecological, cultural, and economic outcomes [22–24]. A social-ecological systems or biocultural approach to restoring traditional agriculture explicitly focuses on the links between the ecological and socio-cultural processes that underpin these systems [3]. Garnering broad support for biocultural restoration can be challenging, however, as short-term revenue is typically lower than monoculture agriculture or alternative land uses like urbanization, and conservation efforts often prefer complete restoration of 'natural' systems to maximize ecological benefits. While a growing body of literature points to a wide array of cultural and ecological benefits of biocultural restoration that can contribute to multi-level sustainability goals [7,16,20], there are few studies that evaluate these benefits (as well as tradeoffs) in a holistic and inclusive way. A framework for evaluating synergies amongst and tradeoffs across objectives of biocultural restoration could facilitate inclusion of these approaches in multi-scale restoration planning and facilitate adaptive management [9].

There are several existing approaches that can be adapted to guide an evaluation framework for biocultural restoration projects. Considering the environmental dimensions, the food-energy-water (FEW) nexus has emerged as an important framework for illuminating hidden synergies and tradeoffs in agriculture of great relevance to local, regional, and international sustainability initiatives [25], such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While the FEW nexus has the potential to shed light on biocultural restoration approaches, it has generally focused on large-scale agriculture and largely ignores cultural aspects that can play critical roles in long-term societal sustainability and adaptive management. As an important complement to address cultural dimensions, a growing theory and emerging examples of inclusive valuation of land-use futures within the ecosystem services or "nature's contributions to people" literature sheds light on strategies to bring together diverse methodologies to assess benefits and tradeoffs in terms of locally relevant and linked ecological, cultural, and socio-economic concerns [16,26,27]. This work has been furthered by indigenous and place-based perspectives on cultural ecosystem services, often framed as reciprocal human-environment relationships well-aligned with biocultural restoration approaches [17,20]. We propose that combining and adapting the FEW nexus and ecosystem services (including

place-based, indigenous cultural ecosystem services) frameworks has important potential to contribute to inclusive assessments of biocultural restoration.

Pacific islands can be considered as model systems to study biocultural restoration of traditional agriculture due to a combination of the socio-cultural significance of local food systems and their geographic isolation, which makes reduced dependence on imported food and energy sources an important part of building resilience. Pacific islands are also characterized by relatively small watersheds and tightly linked land-sea resources, making terrestrial agricultural practices and marine ecosystem health (also important for local food production) intricately linked [28,29]. In Hawai'i, elevated interest in the biocultural values of these traditional agricultural systems is demonstrated by a growing communities working to restore traditional terrestrial agriculture as well as nearshore aquaculture for linked cultural, economic, and environmental benefits [3,30]. The State of Hawai'i through the Aloha + challenge has also committed to interconnected sustainability goals around food, energy, and water (as well as links to local ecosystems and culture) and is recognized as an example of local implementation of the SDGs [31]. These commitments include: doubling food production in 20 years (Hawai'i currently imports nearly 90% of its food [32]); achieving 100% renewable energy by 2040; protecting watersheds and linked marine ecosystems; and facilitating re-connection to place and community-based management [31]. Achieving multiple sustainability goals simultaneously will require re-establishing community-based diversified agricultural systems with low energy requirements and few environmental tradeoffs. Yet, across the State, large tracts of agricultural land are currently fallow or used for high value export crops, largely due to the challenging economics of small-scale farming for local food production [33]. In this context, it is imperative to understand how biocultural approaches to traditional agricultural restoration can contribute towards achieving both local objectives and formal State of Hawai'i sustainability goals around food, energy, and water.

In order to contribute towards a better understanding of the multi-level outcomes of biocultural restoration projects, we collaborated with Kako'o ' ¯ Oiwi, a community-based non-profit in He'eia ¯ on O'ahu at the forefront of biocultural restoration of traditional agriculture, to evaluate the likely future benefits and tradeoffs of their vision around restoring a degraded and invaded wetland to lo'i kalo and native wetland plant communities. We specifically identified key ecological, cultural, and socio-economic outcomes of interest to Kako'o ' ¯ Oiwi and the local community who participate in ¯ the biocultural restoration efforts, and assessed those in combination with the broader State of Hawaii's sustainability goals around food, energy, and water [31]. For evaluating the various outcomes we used mixed methods, including participatory methods using an indigenous cultural ecosystem service process and framework [17]; sediment and nutrient retention ecosystem service modeling [34,35]; and food, energy, and water tradeoff analysis [25,36–39].

This study integrates diverse theories into a practical framework for evaluating biocultural restoration initiatives, with the aim of facilitating their on-the-ground planning, adaptive management, and assessment. Our research team built strong relationships with community members and non-profit staff to develop and apply the framework, ensuring that evaluation outcomes and approaches are reflective of local concerns while also linking to broader statewide sustainability objectives. Applying the framework collaboratively, we addressed the following research questions: (i) what are the locally-relevant cultural, environmental, and economic outcomes of biocultural restoration of lo'i kalo in He'eia, Hawai'i?; (ii) to what extent can biocultural restoration of lo'i kalo in He'eia, Hawai'i contribute to statewide sustainability goals around food, energy, and water?; and (iii) what are the synergies and tradeoffs among these outcomes and how can this inform design of biocultural restoration projects in He'eia and beyond?

#### **2. Methods**

#### *2.1. Site Description*

Our study site He'eia, O'ahu is an ahupua'a (traditional Hawaiian political-ecological boundary), where several NGOs are committed to a biocultural approach of restoring traditional social-ecological systems from mauka to makai (land-to-sea), which include wetland and marine fish ponds (loko i'a), upland agroforestry, and lo'i kalo. The area has recently been designated a Natural Estuarine Research Reserve, and the first of such reserves to explicitly focus on restoration for socio-cultural benefits [40]. The full He'eia watershed (11.5 km2) spans from the top of the Ko'olau mountain range to Paepae o He'eia (traditional fish pond) and then to Kane'ohe Bay, a 45 km ¯ <sup>2</sup> sheltered bay and highly valued conservation and subsistence and commercial fishing area. Average rainfall is 3020 mm at the summit and 1205 mm at the coast [41]. The watershed has two smaller basins, Ha'iku and 'Ioleka'a, that contribute to streamflow in He'eia stream (Figure 1).

We focus on a ~800,000 m<sup>2</sup> wetland managed by the community-based non-profit Kako'o ' ¯ Oiwi ¯ who seek to restore the now primarily invasive vegetation to the lo'i kalo systems present until the 1930s. The mission of Kako'o ' ¯ Oiwi is to "perpetuate the cultural and spiritual practices of Native Hawaiians," ¯ of which restoring lo'i kalo through a biocultural approach is a central part. They have worked to restore lo'i kalo since 2008 and with the help of volunteers and a family program have successfully restored ~7,500 m<sup>2</sup> of lo'i alongside other managed areas, and seek to restore another ~500,000 m<sup>2</sup> to lo'i and other intercropped species (see below) in the next 20 years alongside a series of other restoration activities, including restoration of native wetland plant communities and agroforestry [42] (See SI Methods). They also aim to restore an additional ~100,000 m<sup>2</sup> of the area as retention basins (including areas restored to loko i'a (fish ponds) and native wetland plant communities) with the remaining area including, streams, channels, access roads and small buildings, such as a commercial kitchen, poi (a traditional Hawaiian food made from mashed taro corms) mill, and community gathering place [42].

**Figure 1.** Location of He'eia wetland within the He'eia watershed, O'ahu. NERR = National Estuarine Research Reserve.

### *2.2. Outcomes Evaluated*

Emerging theory on biocultural restoration suggests that evaluations of biocultural projects should include place-based outcomes and indicators defined by and relevant to local actors [20,43]. At the same time, for biocultural approaches to gain traction in broader land-use planning initiatives, demonstrating their value to broader state, regional, and global sustainability goals and objectives is important [9,43] In the context of this study, we defined key outcomes of importance to Kako'o ¯ 'Oiwi's and the local community [ ¯ 42] as well to the achievement of statewide sustainability goals around food, energy, and water [31] (Table 1). An important *first* goal of Kako'o ' ¯ Oiwi is to build ¯ capacity of farmers and provide local families with the opportunity to learn to farm and care for lo'i kalo and (re)connect to the land. Among several initiatives to achieve this (see SI Methods), the organization began a family or 'ohana program where local families care for and maintain lo'i. There are currently 11 families participating in the project and scaling this program is an important part of the non-profit's growth strategy. *Second*, in line with the State's goal to double local food production, Kako'o ' ¯ Oiwi strives to produce traditional and diversified food crops. While financial ¯ return is not a central goal, the organization sees financial sustainability as an important part of their ability to sustain food production. *Third*, in line with the State of Hawai'i's goal to be 100% renewable by 2045, the organization seeks to understand how renewable energy could be incorporated into their long-term plans and how traditional agriculture can reduce energy inputs associated with food production and imports. *Fourth*, in line with the State's goal of protecting watersheds and marine ecosystems, there is a strong interest in understanding how lo'i kalo and broader wetland restoration influences the sediment and nutrient retention functions of the wetland given links to the downstream fish pond and critical coral reef habitat of Kane'ohe Bay, which both have high ecological, economic, ¯ and cultural value (Table 1).


**Table 1.** Outcomes of interest to Kako'o ' ¯ Oiwi and to the broader State of Hawai'i Aloha + Challenge ¯ sustainabilty goals [31].
