A Little Hawaiian Wisdom

A peer of mine is looking at the economic and environmental viability of offshore wind farms in SIDS (Small Island Developing States), which reminded me a little of a project I did last year on the Hawaiian philosophy of 'malama ka pae ainda' - care for the archipelago. The idea was to utilise the bond between the oceans and culture in order to develop a mutually beneficial existence across the human-environment interface.

SIDS often have extremely limited internal markets, and are environmentally highly vulnerable to climate change, particularly if they depend upon a prolific agricultural/aquaculture sector. As such, SIDS are controlled and dwarfed by the larger terrestrial states or countries. Economies are greatly influenced by tourism, and the states often have to pay higher rates for energy, transport, communication and infrastructure.

The Velondriake tribe in Madagascar now sustainably cultivates sea cucumbers with support from Blue Ventures, migrating from the intensive fishing market driven by incredibly strong stock demands from regions such as China (Mayol, T. 2013). The demands exerted by external terrestrial communities on these SIDS has often been the cause of their degradation, the loss of staple fauna and flora and the Allee effect. 

Perhaps if  the 'malama ka pae 'ainda ' could be adopted worldwide as a means for spatially vast, economically stronger and more demanding regions to approach small island developing states, a positive rapport and social equilibrium would remain more constant across the spectrum of human communities. With this, maybe then the environments within which we live would also become more sustainable, and production would be more sustainably prolific, over a much longer period of time, without the social and economic problems that arise out of environmental degradation and exploitation.  

Mayol, T. 13.06.2013. Farming sea cucumbers in Madagascar…for economic hope and conservation. National Geographic Voices.