Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 10, Number 11, 1 Nowemapa 1993 — CBED conference comes to Honolulu [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CBED conference comes to Honolulu

from page 1 said that the present individualistic eeonomie system is tearing apart the planet and CBED-type activities are a way of reversing the trend. "Never before have we had such a responsibility for the world and its future. We know we ean destroy the planet. Power and control is no longer an issue. Interdependence has become a

fact of life." Over 300 people enrolled in the conference. Of that number 110 were Hawaiian, and half eame from neighbor islands. "This year's conference provided more visible evidence that this is a statewide movement," says Linda Colburn. "We had practitioners from all islands participating." The conference differed from last year's by having more repre-

sentation from the financial sector and more participants who could provide technical assistance to CBED projects. Because many of the participants were coming for the second year a large amount of time was spent in specialized workshops that expanded on knowledge gained at last year's event. Nearly 30 speakers from Hawai'i and the Mainland led

over 20 workshops ranging in topics from microenterprise loans, to working with banks, to traditional Hawaiian agriculture. Responses from the workshops varied but most had positive things to say about the banking sessions. Explains Colburn, "It helped demystify the process of loaning money. For those of us who believe there are positive aspects to working with finaneial institutions, the workshop

was very instructionaI." Banks have traditionally been the bad guys in the CBED movement, unwilling to invest in small - and risky - communitybased projects but vitally important given the large amounts of capital at their disposal. Conference organizers hope the event will show banks the opportunities available to them at the community level and eonvince them to invest some of their time and resources.

"Having banks participate in the workshops and see the people involved in successful CBED programs on the M a i n 1 a n d , " says Colburn, "will help them understand how they ean

benefit from such activities."

For most participants the conference offered an opportunity to learn more about CBED, interact with other practitioners, and, at a marketplace opened after the first day's

events, see some of the new prod-

ucts that were coming out of CBED projects. Some of these products included limu from Moloka'i, aquaculture fish from Wai'anae, and taro from Kaua'i. For many of the newcomers the conference helped validate CBED activities they had been doing for years. "Before these conferences people did things

in isolation," says Colburn.

"Now they're aware that they are a part of a larger movement." Colburn believes the large number of people at the conferenee, representing a diverse number of professions, and the high caliber of the speakers brought over from the Mainland to discuss their work, will provide major stimulus to the movement in Hawai'i and encourage the public and private organizations to get more actively involved.

Hanalei taro project Photos by Patrick Johnston

Linda Colburn

Technician at Moloka'i limu project.