Collaborating for Conservation: Laukahi’s Shared Practices to Safeguard Hawai‘i’s Native Plants

Hawaiian plants are among the rarest and most endangered in the world, requiring urgent and coordinated conservation efforts. Laukahi: The Hawai‘i Plant Conservation Network was established to implement the Hawai‘i Strategy for Plant Conservation and foster collaboration among partners to develop shared resources, tools, data, and best management practices. Regional protocols and best management practices are essential to ensure conservation methodologies effectively serve both Hawai‘i’s unique flora and the people working to protect it. Best management practices provide consistency, improve workforce capacity, and standardize data management, all critical for preserving Hawai‘i’s nearly entirely endemic flora. Given the island’s disharmonic biogeography and the extreme sensitivity of native species to threats such as invasive species and wildfires, tailored protocols are more crucial than ever. Laukahi’s partnerships, including the Hawai‘i Rare Plant Restoration Group, which focuses on saving the most imperiled species, and the Hawai‘i Seed Bank Partnership, which ensures the long-term preservation of native plants through seed banking, are key to achieving these goals. Working together, they develop best management practices to overcome challenges, which are shared through Laukahi. Through these collaborative efforts, conservationists can safeguard Hawai‘i’s botanical heritage for future generations.