Hawaii State Aha Moku

The Hawaii State Aha Moku website is in the process of being reconstructed. For further information, please contact Leimana DaMate, Executive Director, Hawaii State Aha Moku, Phone: 808-640-1214, or email leimana.k.damate@hawaii.gov.

For more than ten centuries, the Hawaiian system of natural resource management has been handed down in oral tradition and practice. It is based on the concept of ʻahupuaʻa, the traditional land and ocean tenure system of Hawaiʻi.  There are five elements in the system of best practices for traditional management of Hawaiʻi’s natural and cultural resources:

• An adaptive management regulatory system; (diagram and excerpt from 2009 AKAC Final Report here)
• Codes of conduct, a non-regulatory process to support the regulatory system;(excerpt from 2009 AKAC Final Report here)
• Community consultation to insure management of resources benefits the people;
• Education to support natural and cultural resource management, and;
• Eligibility criteria to participate in resource management.

The Aha Moku Advisory Committee (AMAC) was created pursuant to Act 288, Session Laws of Hawaii 2012.  With the passage of Act 288, the Legislature formally recognized the Aha Moku system and established AMAC within the Department of Land and Natural Resources to serve in an advisory capacity to the Chairperson of the Board of Land and Natural Resources.