Hawaii Island & Sustainable Localization
October 31, 2009
On Wed, October 28th, I gave a presentation on Sustainability & Localization at Angel Farms in Pahoa, Hawaii. It was a handpicked group of local sustainability & permaculture groups of the Big Island. I made a similar presentation 3 years ago at La’Akea Permaculture Community nearby in the Puna area, and am excited to see how interest & area projects relating to food & energy Localization & emergency preparedness have seemed to increase since then!
There was lots of thoughtful & experienced input & the lively discussion continued out into the parking lot & hopefully will accelerate now as the local alternative news – Big Island Weekly – covered the event, and several present were very pleased to have made contact for the first time.
More networking is required as there is so much wild food available, & there are so many people living simply & sustainably already, and any number of organic farmers, skill sets & best practices available to share.
Some Local PUNA projects represented – 
Aloha Mahalo Apono
Papaya Field Restoration & Canoe Projects
*AMA’s mission is to foster stability in our community by creating programs that help to connect people with nature, and enhance their ability to live in harmony with others.
La’akea is a local example of integrating modern permaculture with the natural
rain forest on this island
Greenwill Conservancy
Working with at-risk youth & mentoring to pass on skill sets that will offer jobs in the areas of Green Construction & sustainability
www.iftheboatsstop.wordpress.com
*Keana is making a difference in her lifestyle in 2010 & will be blogging her year of living locally on what is already on the Island. She is asking us to consider -What if the boats really stopped? What if we weren’t able to ship the countless amounts of stuff we use here every week? Would we survive? Could we thrive? The boats have stopped before. What is our sustain-ability?
The Hilo County Government is currently funding a project – The Kohala Center is doing an inventory of food sources & also is asking for citizen input on the future of island agriculture, and so it is a good time to put localization of residential food supply on the table.
On the subject of energy, every new housing development is now required to have a solar hot water installation. Residential water collection is becoming more common, thus saving lots of energy to move district water supplies around. Transport is rural & so is a challenge, but a FREE bus system was recently instated by the county, which connects many rural roads into the towns.
A further note, there are about 200k residents now, and before the advent of imported food, the island supported a population of 300k! A potentially do-able local food transition…so – dig that Taro!!
Aloha,
Annie “NOjeans” SurfWaters
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