Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 34, Number 10, 1 ʻOkakopa 2017 — Huuuuui! [ARTICLE]

Huuuuui!

Kāhea for forward-looking community planners Submitted by the Resilient Hawaiian Communities lnitiative The Resilient Hawaiian Communities Initiative is putting out a kāhea to Native Hawaiian eommunities throughout the state about an opportunity to apply for support and resources toward resiliency planning efforts through early-2019. RHC will select two communities for planning partnerships. While loeal emergency preparedness plans are becoming more eommon, few communities have engaged in forward-looking resilience planning that eonsiders changes in climate and weather patterns. These changes in rainfall, temperature, sea level and other natural patterns affect freshwater supply, the abundance

of plant and animal species and loeal fisheries. The RHC Initiative is designed to support community resilience planning through a eollaborative process supported by a working group of organizations and individuals who are leaders in natural and cultural resource management, Native Hawaiian law, climate change science and planning in Hawai'i. The eommunities will have technical, hnaneial and planning support to increase understanding, build capacity and ultimately strengthen loeal and collective resiliency. On behalf of the initiative, Colead Kapua Sproat, director of Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law, shares, "We're honored to be a part of this partnership and thrilled that the effort offers hnaneial and technieal support to our Native Hawaiian communities who are on the frontlines of the climate change battle. Our cultural practices and life ways are inextricably tied to Hawai'i's natural resources, and this initiative focuses on planning with this connection and the underlying indigenous values at

the core." An information session will be held for those with questions about the solicitation or process on Friday, Nov. 3 at 2 p.m. on O'ahu with access in person or via teleconference. Interested applicants ean sign up for updates and information at www.resilienthawaiiancommunities.com. The applieahon process is now open and submissions must be received by the RHC Initiative by November 14 at 4:30 p.m. HST. Interested communities must complete and submit a 2-3 page Expression of Interest as described in the solicitation. This project is in partnership with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and co-led by the Paeihe Islands Climate Change Cooperative, Department of the Interior's Office of Native Hawaiian Relations, National Park Service's Paeihe Islands Office and the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa's William S. Richardson School of Law's Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law. ■