Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 10, Number 6, 1 Iune 1993 — Molokaʻi activist plants seeds for microenterprise development [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Molokaʻi activist plants seeds for microenterprise development

bv Patrick Johnston The south-east shore of Moloka'i is about as removed from modern, urban Honolulu as you ean get after a thirty minute flight and a short ride in a eompact sedan. There are no stop lights, few cars and fast food means the eook at the Loeal Food restaurant on a good day. Many area inhabitants maintain a subsistence lifestyle, eating the fish they catch in the sea and the food they grow on their land. Colette Machado, longtime political and environmental activist, has lived in the area most of her life and spent a lot of time and effort to preserve its largely Hawaiian character. She now is encouraging people in the community to engage in their own microenterprise activity, keeping the business practices close to the land, and developers as far out as possible. Since the summer of '92 Machado and a staff of three, with financial assistance from OHA and the Department of Business, Eeonomie Development and Tourism, have been operating the Moloka'i Limu Project, a limu production lab designed to see whether it is possible for property owners on the shoreline to start commercial

production of long ogo, a tasty and nutrīious seaweed that grows naturally in the area. "We are trying to promote the shoreline, microenterprise development, and Moloka'i products," says Machado. "We're also trying to get other growers on the island to start businesses, and to create a grower's network." Machado's

limu operation sits on 28 acres of landfill surrounding a m a n m a d e lagoon near Pūko'o. Wire mesh baskets filled with long ogo are strategically placed in different parts of the lagoon to find the most effec-

tive plaee tc grow the sea-

weed. "Our hope is to eventually revive the fishponds found on the south shore and use them to cultivate the limu," Machado explains. Their most recent experiment is

to increase production and facilitate planting by artificially propagating seaweed spores in a lab and then planting these in the lagoon seaweed cages. Now seaweed has to be collected from the reef in places more than a quarter of a mile from shore. Machado says, "We are on the cutting edge of research into this

type of seaweed cultivation." She and her staff work with the University of Arizona Environmental Resources Lab. They do the field work while the university studies the data and

makes occasional site visits. The Limu Project is part of Ke Kua'āina Hanauma Hou, a group headed by Machado that actively encourages the development of small commercial enterprises for

Moloka'i farmers and fishe r m e n .

Their main goal is to preserve the island lifestyle a n d resources through trad i t i o n a 1 activities

suited to the island.

Ke Kua'āina activities include maintaining a garden for medicinal plants, creating a network of Moloka'i growers, producers and gatherers, setting up a packaging and marketing support for this

network, and establishing distribution outlets on Moloka'i, Maui, and O'ahu. The group is the culmination of two decades of activism by Machado and other Moloka'i

re s i d e n t s . They have halted the onslaught of hotel and

condominium developmenl and empowered the eommunity to ensure

that it has the final say in any development that takes plaee on the island. In 1975 she helped organize Hui Alaloa (Group of Long Trails) to fight for access to Moloka'i beaches and shoreline points. This was followed four years later by the creation of Aloha 'Āina O Moloka'i, a 2rout) whose eoal was to involve

residents in decisions concerning development on Moloka'i and was later able to block the development of a 75-unit condominium development on the south shore. Thanks largely to their efforts, in the early 1980s a community continued on page 14

) Limu technician inspects seaweed at limu project; long ogo. photo by Patrick Johnston

Colette Machado

continued from page 12 plan was drawn up by the mayor whieh recognized that Moloka'i development should be primarily concerned with preserving its rural, largely Hawaiian character. "We've empowered the eommunity into developing a policy statement with a strong preservation message," says Machado. The result is roads where most vehicles are piek-up trucks, not rentals, where edible greens grow instead of golf greens, and where people live without many of the modern conveniences found elsewhere but seem better off for it. With developers put on hold, Ke Kua'āina is now concentrat-

ing on improving the lives of community members, but doing it without the alienating and demoralizing affects of working in a foreign enterprise. "I want people to start developing their own revenue doing traditional activities like fishing and farming so they don't have to sell their land or move into tourism," Macahdo says. She believes that the microenterprise emphasis on partnership and team effort suits the rural environment of Moloka'i and ean help residents make its shoreline and farmland profitable.