Dr. Sam ‘Ohu Gon III – April 2027

7:00 pm, Tuesday, April 13, 2027
Online via Zoom, Free and open to the public
Registration required. Click here to register for the Zoom webinar.

Biocultural Conservation: The Future of Island Restoration and Sustainability

Island ecosystems are as unique as the species that comprise them. These ecosystems have been ravaged by the effects of western-style agriculture and other land use introduction of alien species, extinction of endemics, and global warming. When an island’s living environment is foundational to the human culture that evolved within it, biodiversity conservation becomes biocultural conservation. Departing from conventional philosophies of conservation that set nature apart from humanity, a growing biocultural conservation movement is developing in parallel with a cultural renaissance in Hawaiʻi. The tenets of island biocultural conservation can be applied, at regional and global levels, as seen in examples from major global conservation leaders. Dr. Gon will discuss how biocultural conservation applies to the islands of Hawai’i, the Pacific, and beyond.

Sam ʻOhukaniʻōhiʻa Gon III is Senior Scientist and Cultural Advisor for The Nature Conservancy of Hawaiʻi & Palmyra. Conventionally trained as a conservation biologist, Sam was also traditionally trained by a master of Hawaiian chant and ceremony, Kumu John Keola Lake, and underwent the ʻūniki huʻelepo (rite of passage) as a kahuna kākalaleo and kumu of oli (master and teacher of chant) in the hālau, Nā Waʻa Lālani Kāhuna. Sam’s expertise is in Hawaiian terrestrial ecosystems and species, and biocultural conservation, striving to “mainstream” indigenous knowledge, values and practice into conventional conservation efforts. For this he was recognized as a Living Treasure of Hawaiʻi. He advocates for Hawaiian culture and native biota as a member of the Bishop Museum’s Board of Directors, and a Science Trustee for the National Tropical Botanical Garden. Sam builds such approaches in higher education as affiliate graduate faculty in the UH Biocultural Initiative of the Pacific and Schools of Life Sciences and of Natural Resource and Environmental Management. He has applied his island conservation expertise in projects and workshops in the Galapagos, the Philippines, Pohnpei, Palau, Fiji, Jamaica, Okinawa, Amazonia, and Rapanui.